The labour movement and the hospital crisis
1922 1922 1920s 21 pages As regards faulty geographical distribution, the present concentration of large hospitals in the centre of London and the lack of hospital provision in populous districts in the outlying parts is well known. It is not, however, so fully recognised that the distribution of ho...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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London ; published by the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party
[1922]
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/FC6124EE-F4A2-4060-AFC1-BFAE504E5521 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/F919292D-A915-49D0-89FF-99B700A8C976 |
| Summary: | 1922
1922
1920s
21 pages
As regards faulty geographical distribution, the present concentration of large hospitals in the centre of London and the lack of hospital provision in populous districts in the outlying parts is well known. It is not, however, so fully recognised that the distribution of hospital accommodation is equally faulty in the county areas, as may be seen in the foregoing table, compiled from one prepared after local inquiry in each county by the Fabian Research Department.* NUMBER OF BEDS REQUIRED It has been calculated that to do all the work that is best done within the walls of General Hospitals, which for practical purposes may be taken at present to mean the Voluntary Hospitals, there should be from two to five beds per 1,000 of the population, varying in number with the character of the neighbourhood; more in industrial areas, fewer in rural districts. Taking beds per 1,000 of the population as the lowest possible minimum for the whole country, the number required for a population of 48 millions is 160,000, which shows a deficit of 107,906 beds. Part of this deficit could be made good by utilising some of the empty beds in the Poor Law infirmaries (see p. 17). VOLUNTARY EFFORT INSUFFICIENT Even before the war voluntary contributions were failing to keep pace with the increased cost of upkeep and with the cost of modern methods of diagnosis and treatment. Since the war the financial difficuities of most of the Voluntary Hospitals are notorious. If the voluntary system fails to keep existing hospital accommodation going, it cannot be expected to meet the capital outlay and the annual expenditure for the necessary increased accommodation. But even apart from financial difficulties the present voluntary system, with its honorary medical and surgical staffs, leads to so many anomalies and abuses that it would be a pity to perpetuate and exaggerate them by applying the voluntary principle to the necessary increased hospital accommodation. Some other method of providing and maintaining the necessary increased accommodation must be found. ANOMALIES OF THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM Hospital Abuse The Voluntary Hospitals, built and endowed by charity for the really necessitous poor, are now utilised to a great extent by the skilled artisan, and to an increasing extent by the lower middle and even the professional classes ; this leads to constant disputes as to "hospital abuse," or the admission of patients other than those for whom hospitals were intended, and to a great increase in the number of out-patients and would-be in-patients. Under-Staffing The medical and surgical staff is not directly paid for its services, its members looking to the experience, which cannot be gained elsewhere, and to the prestige attached to the appointments for their reward. In other words, an appointment to a hospital staff carries a certain monopoly value, and this being so, the number of appointments is jealously guarded, with the result that all big hospitals are badly under-staffed. The extension of hospital service to other than the necessitous poor and this under-staffing lead to overcrowding of the out-patients' departments. Patients have to wait long hours * New Statesman, Supplement. Report on the working of the National Insurance Act. 4
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