An introductory address on the future of St. Thomas's Hospital : delivered at the hospital in the Surrey Gardens on the occasion of the opening of the session of its Medical and Surgical College, October 1st, 1862 / John Syer Bristowe.

  • Bristowe, John Syer, 1827-1895.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory address on the future of St. Thomas's Hospital : delivered at the hospital in the Surrey Gardens on the occasion of the opening of the session of its Medical and Surgical College, October 1st, 1862 / John Syer Bristowe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at least take into their consultations some one or two of my colleagues, whose opinions on such points are of the highest value, and who have devoted more time and thought to questions of this kind, than probably any of those with whom the ultimate decision lies. In re¬ ference to diet and nursing, I take this opportunity of remarking, that both have been much improved during the last few years; greatly to the comfort and advantage of the patients, and greatly also to the credit of the Hospital. I cannot, in connection with the system of nursing, forbear here to pay my tribute of regard to the excellent matron of the institution, Mrs. Wardroper, under whose zealous and able management, the improvements, to which I have referred, have been effected—improvements, in virtue of which the Sairy Gamps and Betsy Prigs, of bye-gone days, have been replaced by cleanly, well-conducted, trustworthy servants. Next in point of importance to the welfare of the admitted patients, are the questions as to the convenience of applicants, and the means of securing the admission of suitable cases. A Hospital, place it where you will, can never be at a loss for applicants, deserving of charity; and, if the grand purpose of a Hospital be merely that of supplying food, and raiment, and lodging to a certain number of per¬ sons, the purpose is one of very easy accomplishment. But, I re¬ peat, the acknowledged essential duty of a Hospital, is not to provide a home for the starving, the decrepid, the malingering, for whom the workhouse is the appropriate refuge; not even to furnish an asylum for the convalescent and the incurable, much as they are deserving of our sympathy and our benevolence ; but to succour, as far as possible, the victims of acute, and curable diseases, and of accidents, who need prompt and skilful treatment to rescue them from imminent death, and to restore them to their families and friends. How shall the wants of such claimants as these be best consulted ? By placing the Hospital, intended for their reception, in the midst of green pastures? Surely not! I have already shown, I believe, that no sufficient advantages of health can be adduced in favour of such a plan. Further, the statistics of the places of abode of the in- and out¬ patients of this Hospital, for the last year, show conclusively that two-thirds of the total number of cases, admitted for treatment, came from within a circle, around the Hospital, of two miles radius, and that of acute cases and accidents a still larger proportion was furnished by the same area. But it hardly needed statistics to prove that con¬ venience of access must be, with the suffering poor, and especially