Annual report for the year 1905 (8th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board.

  • Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England)
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annual report for the year 1905 (8th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/396 (page 4)
    was presented to the Board on the 8th July, when we were empowered to dis¬ tribute it as we saw fit. The many and important points which arise out of this report are receiving our earnest consideration, and we shall report fully on the whole matter as soon as practicable. On two points, however, which needed urgent attention, we have already reported. The first was the medical superintendents’ recommendation that at the South- Eastern Hospital two or more wards should be divided by glass partitions into separate rooms ; that scarlet fever patients should be treated therein on the system of complete isolation during the whole period of their detention in hospital, so far as that might be found practicable, and that the effect of this procedure on the occurrence of return cases should be carefully observed. The Board approved of the proposal, but the Local Government Board did not, and the question of an alternative scheme is receiving our consideration. The other urgent point was the suggested issue of a notice to parents or guardians of every discharged scarlet fever patient. The advisability of the adoption of such a notice being apparent to us, we settled its terms and brought it into use. The following is a copy NOTICE TO THE FRIENDS OF PATIENTS DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL AFTER SUFFERING FROM SCARLET FEVER. “ It is recommended— “ 1. That for three weeks after leaving hospital, the patient should not sleep in the same “ bed (or, if possible, the same room) as children who have not had scarlet fever. “2. That during this period articles used by the patient (such as cup, plate, spoon, “ handkerchiefs, towels, and toys) should be kept distinct from those used by “other children. ‘ 3. That the patient should not attend school for three weeks. “The above precautions are specially important in the case of those patients who “ suffer from discharge from either nose or ears.'3 At the end of 1904, 17 patients remained under treatment, which Smallpox. number, after rising slightly in March, steadily declined, and from 8th August to the end of the yep,r the smallpox hospitals have been entirely free from patients. With a view to safeguarding the spreading of infection by workmen employed in the erection of the authorised additional buildings at Joyce Green Smallpox Hospital and on painting works there, the Board in February approved of the re-opening of the temporary hospital at Long Beach for patients and the disinfection of Joyce Green Hospital. The works at Joyce Green are now approaching completion and we anticipate that the hospital will shortly be reopened. In May we sanctioned certain precautionary regulations for the governance of all future works at the smallpox hospitals. We record with pleasure the continued and valuable assistance we conclusion. ]iave received from the medical superintendents and other officers. (Signed) J. T. HELBY, Chairman.