HH62/2/RENFRE/37

Transcription

[Page] 36

isolate patients suffering from one disease from those suffering from
another. This objection, alone, is sufficient to condemn the present
building; any attempt to ignore it would inevitably lead to trouble
in the future. There are other material objections; the wards are
absolutely without means of ventilation in winter weather, there
being no fire-places in them, and the heat from the hot-water pipes is
so irregularly distributed that it is as entering an oven when one
opens the doors of one of the scarlet fever wards, while at the other
end of the hospital the temperature is, in winter, too low to be toler-
able. The bathing arrangements are most primitive and unsuitable,
so also the arrangements of the water-closets. There is no proper or
sufficient accommodation for the staff - the way from one end of the
hospital to the other leads through the matron's bedroom. The case
is clear: a new hospital is required. The ambulance, also, is no
longer sufficient for the longer journeys and more delicate work
required of it. I hope presently to be instructed to report more fully
upon the whole subject. In the later months of the year the Hos-
pital Committee had under consideration the circumstances of the
management of the Cowglen Hospital, and with a view to the intro-
duction of a more business-like system, I prepared a code of rules,
which, briefly, provided specifically that the medical officer shall be
styled medical superintendent, and have full control of, and be re-
sponsible for, everything in connection with the hospital; that the
matron shall have charge of the hospital, subject to the control of
the medical superintendent; that all provisions and goods for the
hospital shall be ordered only upon printed counter-foiled forms,
signed by the matron, and initialled by the medical superintendent;
that an inventory of the hospital furnishings be made up by the
matron every six months, initialled by the medical superintendent,
and presented to the committee; and that the matron keep an invoice
book. All the members of the staff received an increase of salary
during the year.
In the Second District the Greenock Infirmary Directors, in the
course of 1891, decided that patients should no longer be received
from Kilmalcolm or Inverkip Parishes, unless a certain fixed annual
charge, based upon population, were paid by or for these parishes,
towards the maintenance and staffing of the hospital, whether or no
any patients were sent in during the year - an equitable enough
arrangement, considering, for instance, that while the hospital had
been maintained, ready equipped, for the reception of patients from

[Page] 37

Kilmalcolm Parish, no patient had been admitted from that parish in
the course of the last five years. Under the circumstances I advised
the District Committee that the proposal of the Infirmary Directors
(of a standing charge of £15) must be accepted in so far as Inverkip
Parish was concerned, - from the isolated position of the parish there
was, indeed, no alternative. I further advised that negotiations should
be entered into with the Committee of the Johnstone Combination
Hospital with a view to arranging for the admission of patients into
that hospital from the parishes of Kilmalcolm and Lochwinnoch.
These negotiations at first promised to be fruitless, but towards the
end of the year the Hospital Committee agreed to receive patients
from these parishes, in the meantime, at a fixed rate of £8 8s. per
patient. I trust that in the ensuing year a more satisfactory and
permanent arrangement may be entered into. In the meantime,
however, we have access to hospital accommodation for patients from
every part of the Second District, which is so far satisfactory.
A matter which will have to receive the consideration of the Dis-
trict Committees during the ensuing year, is the question of the
provision of disinfecting stations, or of some other system perhaps
better adapted to the wants of a widespread rural district. The
question is involved in difficulty, and I have not yet been able to
think out a scheme which would satisfy myself.

THE POSITION OF THE COUNTY AS REGARDS WATER SUPPLY.

In respect of water-supply the county is better off, generally
speaking, than the average rural district, and it would be strange if
it were otherwise, for this is, indeed, a well-watered country. The
water-supply system of the county, however, still leaves much to be
desired.
In the First or Upper District the question of water-supply has,
for the most part, settled itself naturally, without the intervention
of the Local Authorities. The Gorbals (Glasgow) Water Commission,
by arrangement, supplies a large part of the area contiguous with
its compulsory area, including Barrhead and Thornliebank. And the
Busby Water Company supplies the villages of Busby, Clarkston,
and Sheddens, and most of Giffnock. Thus it has happened that the
lower area, remote from the hills where the rain falls most copiously,
is well supplied with water, while the higher levels are badly off in
this respect.