REPORTS ON UK MILITARY HOSPITALS 1902-3

A SELECTION OF SMALL HOSPITALS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED KINGDOM

CROWN COPYRIGHT, THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES WO30/133

*****


THIRD STATION HOSPITAL, ALDERSHOT
Visited on 18th November, 1902, by Surgeon-General Keogh and Mr. Fripp, without notice.

Equipped for 227 beds; number of patients on date of visit was under 150, viz., under 100 Venereal, and about 50 cases of slight illness and accident.
Medical Officer in charge, Major Rowney, who with three Officers under him, seems to have done everything possible with the materials at his command. There are no Nursing Sisters.

      To adequately describe the glaring defects of this institution would be mere waste of time. Its immediate evacuation and demolition is the only possible way of dealing with an institution to which the name hospital should not be applied. The site is cut in two by a high road. ‘Hut Side’ consists of parallel rows of antiquated wooden huts, said to date from the Crimea; each hut contains 32 beds, and is divided into two wards by a compartment which houses one stone tank or bath [without any hot water supplies], and a nest of w.c.’s and urinals [without any open air space]. The ventilation and the warming of the huts is very bad indeed. The administration hut is cramped, inconvenient and insanitary. It is in the room used for small operations which are frequent in the Venereal hospital, but the instruments are kept across the road in ‘Union Side.’ ‘Union Side’ consists of a very antiquated but picturesque red-brick building of varying height, which in its palmy days was used as a workhouse or union, and hence the name. The rooms are badly lit and poorly ventilated.
      The sooner the place is struck off the List of Military Hospitals the better for the Service and for the Army, for nothing could be better calculated to crush the energy out of any Officer, to make the non-commissioned officers and men of the corps content with a low level of attainment, and to put dread of the word ‘hospital’ into the heart of any patient.
It appears that the slight cases could be housed in the Cambridge Hospital which is less than a quarter of a mile away, and one pavilion in that hospital could also be cleared and reserved for general cases. It is not apparent why this arrangement could not be permanently adhered to, and so both money and personnel economised, for, if necessary, the Cambridge Hospital might be enlarged.

*****

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE
Visited by the Director-General and Dr. Perry on 27th April, 1903.

Number of beds in hospital – 16.
Number of sick on date of visit – 4, of whom 3 were venereal cases, and 1 a sprained knee.
Average number of daily sick for the month – 3 Regulars and 3 Militia
Strength of station – 11 Officers, 161 men, 55 women and 101 children.
Medical Officer – Surgeon-Lieut.-Colonel J. Duncan [Volunteers]
Strength of Royal Army Medical Corps – 1 non-commissioned officer, 2 orderlies, 1 of them a cook.

      This was a badly kept hospital. The surgical dressings were in disorder, and exposed; the w.c.’s wanted flushing, the kitchen drawers were untidy, the bread crocks were dirty. The patients were in very dirty clothes, the round towels were grimy, the bed sackings stained. The convalescent chair had its caster off. The pack store clean linen are in the same room, the dirty linen store wants cleaning. In the isolation block the w.c. is encrusted with deposit, and the orderly’s room very dirty. The wards badly want distempering. There is the usual lack of any hot water supply.

*****

BIRMINGHAM
Visited by the Director-General and Dr. Perry on 29th April, 1903.

Beds in hospital – 8. No infectious block.
Daily sick for month – 4.
On date of visit – 6.
Strength of station – 7 Officers, 185 men, 14 women, and 21 children.
Royal Army Medical Corps – 1 non-commissioned officer and 1 orderly.

      The building is a private house converted to hospital purposes, and possesses no sanitary convenience attached to its wards. The surgery was in good order, the ward was airy with open windows. The non-commissioned officer has only one living room in his quarters. The beds are of old pattern and the linen store and pack store are together. The kitchen, medical store, and mortuary are well kept. The w.c.’s were flushed all at one time and once a day, the trough being long and common to all. There was an antique bath of the sarcophagus type in slate. There was a new slop sink, but apparently it is very rarely that a bed-pan is wanted in this hospital. The building is quite unsuited for a modern hospital, but the non-commissioned officer in charge deserves credit for making the best of it.

*****

BRIGHTON
Inspected with Surgeon-General Keogh, 28th March, 1903, at 3. 30 p.m.

Number of beds – 28, including 3 for infectious cases.
Average number of patients – 13 to 18.
Strength of station – 461 men, 51 women, and 94 children.
Establishment – Major, Royal Army Medical Corps, non-commissioned officer and private, Royal Army Medical Corps.

      The hospital is a brick building, with a slate roof, of two storeys. It is in fair condition. It is situated in the corner of the barrack square, is close to stables, and near the railway. Some allotment gardens are near at hand, which are said to smell at times. The hospital is surrounded by a small garden, neatly kept, but it is somewhat hemmed in. Water supply is good. Is lit by gas.
      The wards are good, clean, tidy and well kept. They are well warmed and ventilated, and are light. The hospital furniture and fittings are of the usual obsolete type, and need to be replaced.
      The sanitary arrangements are not as good as they ought to be. There is no place for washing bed-pans; these are washed in the w.c. with water fetched from the lower floor in a can. There is one case of enteric fever in the hospital. The bathroom and bath are poor. The lavatories fair. The kitchen is outside the hospital, and the diets are carried across to the hospital in the open. There is no operating room. There are no boxes for dressings. The dressings in use are kept in old newspapers. The supply of surgical instruments is too scanty. There are no married quarters. The store rooms are ample, and in good condition. The linen is well washed, and is, indeed, very excellently turned out. there is a suitable mortuary of the usual type.
      Women and children are treated in quarters. There is no lying-in hospital in Brighton. The Medical Officer writes: ‘The people are so crowded that confinements in quarters are really indecent, and I should think both insanitary and trying to the patients from noise.’

Comment. – A covered way should be made between the kitchen and the hospital. The sanitary condition of the hospital calls for much improvement. The ward equipment is poor. The hospital can hardly be extended on its present site, and, if an increase in hospital accommodation is proposed, a new site should be selected. Some accommodation should be provided for lying-in women, and for sick women and children.

*****

BRISTOL
Inspected with Surgeon-General Keogh, 3rd April, 1903, at 4 p.m.

Number of beds – 34, including 2 for infectious cases.
Average number of patients – 11
Strength of station – 16 Officers, 378 men, 77 women, and 159 children

      There were five patients in the hospital, all very trivial cases, which would be treated as out-patients in a civil hospital.
      The barracks are in the open country just outside Bristol, and on rising ground. The hospital is well placed in a corner of the barrack square. It is an old-fashioned building of two storeys, said to have been built in 1847; slate roof. It is a little hemmed in, and is too close to the boundary wall. Water supply good.
      The wards are lofty, well ventilated, and well lit, but are with difficulty kept warm. There are several small wards. The hospital generally is clean and tidy, and fairly equipped. It is very bare. The ward furniture is obsolete. The Medical Officer’s room is very bare, and the barrack room is too small. There is a great lack of rooms and cupboards for stores. There are no boxes for dressings.
      There is no operating room. Such operations as are done in an empty ward. The kitchen is in the building, and is fair. The linen store is fair. The condition of the linen, as regards washing, is fair to good. The steward’s store is too small. The pack store is out of doors, and is very good.
      The sanitary arrangements are good. More sinks are required. The lavatories are good. The married quarters consist of two rooms, in which are accommodated a man, his wife, and five children. The mortuary is serviceable. It is built against the main hospital wall.
      Women and children are treated in quarters, or are sent to a civil hospital. Infectious cases are isolated in quarters, or are sent to a civil hospital. As no operations of magnitude are performed in the hospital, serious surgical cases are sent to a civil hospital.
      The infectious hospital is within 12 yards of the main hospital. It is built against the boundary wall, and immediately outside this wall are civilian dwelling-houses. The hospital is a low building, looking like a prison. It is ill lit, and is totally unfitted as a place for the sick. It contains only two beds.

Comment – The position of this hospital is such that it could not well be enlarged or extended. It is a question of whether such a hospital is needed. If retained, it could be made efficient at small expense. The infectious hospital is to be absolutely condemned, and would, no doubt, be condemned by civil authorities.

*****

BURNLEY
Visited by the Director-General and Dr. Perry on 26th April, 1903

      This hospital had been closed about a week before our visit. It was in a most deplorable condition of filth and neglect, and was quite unfit for habitation. The non-commissioned officer in charge was, at the time of our visit, under arrest, and the equipment was removed. If this hospital is ever to be reopened, much will require to be done to make it suitable for sick soldiers. In fact the whole barracks presented a picture of the most abject squalor, and the sight of them must have a strongly deterrent effect upon any man in Burnley who might think of enlisting. They were really disgraceful.

*****

BURY
Visited by the Director-General and Dr. Perry on 26th April, 1903

Beds in hospital – 18, inclusive of 2 in isolation block.
Sick in hospital at date of visit – 2
Average sick for the month – 1.
Strength of station 15 Officers, 314 men, 71 women, and 109 children
Surgeon-Major A. A. Watson, 2nd Volunteer Bn., East Lancashire Regiment, Medical Officer
Strength of Royal Army Medical Corps – 1 non-commissioned officer, and 2 orderlies, 1 of them a cook.

      The surgery and the examining room for recruits were clean, and on our visit several recruits were already stripped for inspection. It did not appear necessary to have them stripped so long before the arrival of the Medical Officer. There were earth closets in this hospital. The mortuary was occupied with firewood and dirty linen. The same room served for linen and pack store. The washing was bad, and the socks, in particular, very poor, nor were they legibly marked. In the isolation block the roof was soaking with wet. There was no w.c. attached to the ward, and there was no water to the slop sink. The kitchen was clean, the larder and grocery store in the same room. The wards were fairly well kept. There had been no serious case in the hospital since last October.

*****

CHESTER
Visited by the Director-General and Dr. Perry on 28th April, 1903.

Beds in hospital – 11. No infectious block.
Number of sick – 6.
Strength of station – 25 Officers, 253 men, 50 women, 105 children.
Royal Army Medical Corps – 1 non-commissioned officer, 2 orderlies, 1 a cook.
Average number of daily sick for last month – 8.

      This hospital was originally a brick-built private house, and there are no annexes attached to any of the wards. There are some old w.c.’s outside, and they are flushed occasionally all at once. The bed-pans are washed at the urinal. The mortuary is used as a day room by the orderly. The beds are old, the sackings dirty, the socks worse than usual. The foul linen is stored under the staircase. In one small room were carrots, onions, potatoes, kits, and clean linen, the washing of which was very badly done. There was no post-mortem table. The dispensary and kitchen were well kept. This hospital is quite unfit for modern requirements and cannot be made suitable for serious cases.

*****

COVENTRY
Visited by the Director-General and Dr. Perry on 29th April, 1903.

Beds in hospital – 17. No infectious block
Average daily sick for month – 6.
Sick at date of visit – 2.
Strength of station – 5 Officers, 157 men, 18 women, and 25 children.
Royal Army Medical Corps – 1 non-commissioned officer and 2 orderlies, 1 a cook.

      The surgical dressings were exposed and untidy; the cook presented a deplorable appearance. The kitchen drawers were very untidy. The pack store was encumbered with a bath, which has not been used for years. The w.c.’s were of antique type, several being flushed at once through a long trough. The mortuary contained an old wooden table of the most venerable pattern yet encountered. Clean and dirty linen had a common receptacle under the stairs. The washing is fairly well done. The ward beds are old, the pillows very dirty, the patient’s clothing grimy. Bed-pans, if used, are emptied outside and washed in the yard. It would be useless to spend money on this hospital short of entire reconstruction.

*****

DEVIZES
Inspected with Surgeon-General Keogh, 3rd April, 1903, at 12 noon.
Number of beds – 35, including 2 for infectious cases.
Average number of patients – 10
Strength of station – 14 Officers, 289 men, 42 women, and 80 children
Establishment – a retired Army Medical Officer, 4 men of the Royal Army Medical Corps.

      The hospital is 22 years old, is of brick, is two storeys high, is in excellent condition, and well suited for a hospital. It is well situated in a corner of the barrack square, and is quite clear of other buildings. There is a small garden around the hospital, which is neat and well kept. The barracks are well outside the town. Good water supply.
      The two main wards contain 16 beds each. There are windows on either side; these windows are double. The wards are well warmed, lit and ventilated, and may be spoken of as excellent. The equipment is obsolete. The wards were bare, and were neither tidy nor clean.
      The sanitary arrangements are incomplete. The lavatories have wooden floors, and are dirty. The bath is too small. There is no accommodation for washing out bed-pans, nor for washing plates and dishes. The kitchen is excellent, clean, tidy, and well found.
      There is a great need of additional room for stores. For example, the surgical dressings are stored in the cook’s bedroom. The linen and steward’s stores are in the same room. On the other hand, the pack store was largely occupied by old books and papers. The washing is only fair. The linen is badly and roughly got up.
The married quarters are exceedingly good.
There is an excellent and well-equipped mortuary.
      The infectious hospital is a separate building, is well isolated, and contains two beds. If more than two infectious cases are on the list at a time, they are sent to a civil hospital.
All the women and children are treated in quarters. There is a good cottage hospital in the town.

Comment. – This building could be made into a very excellent hospital, if additional store rooms were supplied, and if the sanitary defects were made good. The hospital gave evidence of very slack administration, and it is evident that the best is not being made of it.

*****

EXETER
Inspected with Surgeon-General Keogh, 4th April 1903, at 11 a.m.

Number of beds – 23, including 3 for infectious cases.
Average number of patients in hospital – 17
Strength of station – 18 Officers, 675 men, 78 women, and 120 children.
Establishment – 1 non-commissioned officer and 1 private, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1 regimental and 2 civil orderlies, and 1 cook.

      The barracks are very well placed on high ground on the outskirts of the town.
The hospital is well placed in a fine open barrack square. It is near the gates, and is fairly isolated. It is a very old brick and slate building of two storeys. There is a small garden at the back. There are three wards, with windows on three sides. The wards are fair. The floors are old, and the general state of the place is one of decay. The equipment is old and obsolete. The staircase is of wood. The water supply is said to be good. The sanitary arrangements are quite fair. More sinks are needed. There is no operating room. The surgical outfit is rudimentary. There are no boxes for dressings. Cases needing operation are sent to Devonport.
      Attached to the hospital is an outbuilding consisting of a kitchen, a mortuary, and a dirty linen store, all packed closely together. The kitchen is in excellent condition. The state of the mortuary is disgraceful; it is used as a store for rubbish, and contained gardening implements, old clothes, and other articles.
      All the store rooms are excellent. The washing is fairly done, but is far behind that of many other stations visited.
      Women and children are treated in quarters. Infectious cases are sent to the civil hospital. As regards the men, any urgent operation case, or any very serious accident case, would be sent to the civil hospital.
      The infectious hospital is a separate building of three beds. It is a new building, is well isolated, well found, and admirably suited for its purpose.

Comment. – The hospital is an unsuitable and decaying building which could never be made efficient and which should not be extended or added to. The infectious hospital is excellent.

*****

GOLDEN HILL
Inspected with the Director-General on 14th April, 1903, at 11 a.m.

      A new hospital is being erected at this station. The present hospital is situated inside the fort. The fort occupies a very splendid position from a health point of view, but it is needless to say that the quarters inside an old fort are not quite suited for a hospital. The establishment consists of a non-commissioned officer and 2 orderlies, Royal Army Medical Corps, and a civilian cook.
      The hospital is reached by an iron outside staircase, and is lit with lamps. The water supply is good. There is a great lack of store room. The wards are light and cheerful and by no means so ill-suited for wards as may be supposed. There is a good bathroom and a good lavatory. The mortuary is outside the fort. The hospital is a model of cleanliness, order and neatness. Every part of it is in perfect order. It serves to show how much can be done to remedy the defects of most inconvenient premises, and how much depends upon personal attention.
      No hospital visited in the district could compare, in the matter of neatness and cleanliness, with this most unpromising building. There were 3 patients in the hospital.

Comment. – The station appears to be too small to need that the Medical Officer should be the rank of a Major. The hospital is soon to be evacuated.

*****

LANCASTER
Inspected on Saturday, 25th April, 1903

The hospital contains 16 beds, inclusive of 2 isolation beds.
Number of sick on day of visit – 1
Strength of station in March – 11 Officers, 329 men, 41 women and 80 children.
Medical staff – 1 retired Officer, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1 non-commissioned officer, and 2 orderlies.

      The hospital is a stone building situated in the barracks and of old type. It is fairly well kept, and the Officer in charge appeared to be interested and alert. The wards want painting, and there is a smoky stove in one of them, which gives constant trouble. The heating is bad, and it is said to take 3 hours before a hot bath can be obtained. The horsehair of the pillows and bolsters is very lumpy, and many of the sheets have holes in them. The washing is rough in the extreme, the colour of the linen is bad, and the socks, in particular, very much shrunken and almost unwearable. The laundry is at Preston.
The isolation has in it two barrack beds, suitable enough for cases of itch, but not for other patients. In the orderly’s room, off the isolation ward, is a tub of chlorinated lime without any lid.
      Throughout the hospital new pattern w.c.’s are wanted, and there is no sluice. The patient’s dinner things are washed at the sink used for the bed-pans. The mortuary is a rough building, its wooden roof stained with wet, and it is used as a tool house. The table-top is dirty, and the pedestal is sorely in want of a little paint. A gas bracket should be fixed in the dispensary over the counter used for dispensing, which must be dark in winter, and dangerous. The reserve stock of medicines is kept in the linen store. The pack store is on a landing between two wards. [It appeared to us that this hospital might well be used only for trivial cases, severe ones being accommodated in the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, which, we were told, is a well managed and efficient institution.]

*****

LIVERPOOL
Visited by the Director-General and Dr. Perry on 28th April, 1903.

     The hospital was opened in 1884. It contains 23 beds, inclusive of 2 in the isolation block. The beds are of old pattern with sackings.
Strength of station – 15 Officers, 384 men, 99 women, and 196 children.
Royal Army Medical Corps – 1 non-commissioned officer and 3 orderlies, 1 a cook.

      The hospital contains a circular ward, with which we were not favourably impressed. The upper part of the windows in it would not open, and in the roof were ventilating places which on occasion allow dust to fall on whatever lies beneath them. The w.c.’s are closed in and should be replaced by a modern pattern. There are no slop sinks. The kitchen was rather untidy, the mortuary in good condition, the washing badly done, but the socks rather better than the average. The same room serves as an office for the Medical Officer and for a dispensary. The hospital is of modern type, and might be brought up to date.

*****

MANCHESTER
Visited by the Director-General and Dr. Perry on 27th April, 1903.

Beds in hospital – 34, including 2 in isolation block.
Average daily sick – 22
Strength of station – 10 Officers, 424 men, 35 women, 57 children.
Royal Army Medical Corps – 1 Officer, 1 non-commissioned officer, 3 orderlies, 1 of them a cook. The non-commissioned officer’s quarter has two rooms for himself, wife and 4 children.

      The site of this hospital in the cavalry barracks is quite unsuitable and its structure is bad. If it is necessary to retain the hospital in Manchester, it should be replaced in a building not in a slum, and not permeated with the odours of the stable.
      The general condition of the place was such as might be expected in such surroundings. The passages were dirty, the shades over the lamps perished by corrosion, the sheets on the beds grimy, the round towels filthy, the w.c.’s bad and not working, the slop sink with a soaked wooden front to it, of the oldest pattern and disgusting. The wards want distempering, in one of the passages the plaster was peeling. There is no disinfecting place. The mortuary is cumbered with wood and foul linen. The pack store and linen room are the same apartment. Altogether nothing could be much worse.

*****

NEWHAVEN
Inspected with Surgeon-General Keogh, 28th March, 1903, at 12 noon

Number of beds – 11, including 4 for infectious cases.
Patients in hospital – 1
Average number of patients – 1 to 4
Strength of station – 1 Officer, 25 men, 6 women and 15 children.
Establishment – a visiting civilian practitioner, 1 non-commissioned officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps.

      Hospital is situated on a wide open green near the fort and by the side of the harbour. It is entirely isolated, and its position is excellent. It is a little difficult of access. It is surrounded by a small and well-kept garden. The hospital is of two storeys with slate roof, and is in excellent condition. There are extensive outbuildings attached provided as married quarters, but they are not occupied. The water supply is good. There are three very good light and well-ventilated wards. The bathroom is good, but the bath is very obsolete. The sanitary arrangements were good for a small establishment. The kitchen was good. The ward furniture was cheerless, scanty, and of the old pattern.
      The wards were clean, tidy, and in every way well kept. The linen was washed at Lewes, and was particularly well done.  There is no separate isolation block.
      There is no civil hospital at Newhaven. Cases not treated in the hospital are sent to Brighton.

Comment. – The state of the hospital calls for commendation.
There would appear to be no need for any hospital at this station, as Brighton is near at hand.
The building would make an exceptionally good convalescent home.

*****

PARKHURST
Inspected with the Director-General, 14th April 1903, at 11 a.m.
Number of beds – 75, and 4 for infectious cases.
Average number of patients in hospital – 19
Strength of station – 21 Officers, 532 men, 56 women, and 105 children.
Establishment – 4 non-commissioned officers and 6 orderlies of the Royal Army Medical Corps, only 1 Medical Officer. Two sisters are attached to the hospital.

      The hospital occupies what once was a large private house. The building is of brick and tile, is of three storeys and is in good condition. It is isolated, is surrounded by a well-kept garden, and is very well placed. It is some little way from the barracks. The wards are good and are clean and tidy. The bathrooms and lavatories are good and are clean. The staircases are of wood. The equipment in the wards is obsolete. The dressings are kept in drawers. There are no boxes for dressings. The basement is light and clean. There is a very good kitchen in the basement, but it is some little way from the wards. There is ample store accommodation and the various store rooms are clean and well kept. The washing is well done and the shirts and other linen are above the average. In some outbuildings, evidently old stables, there is a foul linen room, a pack store, a prisoners’ ward, an infectious ward and a linen store. All are clean and well kept. The wards named are not first rate.
      The mortuary is well found and was in excellent condition. At some distance from the hospital is a new building fitted with an admirable disinfector for clothes, bedding, etc.
No use appears to be made of the civil hospital. There is a very old and quite useless operating table in the hospital, but no operating room. Women and children are attended in quarters. The most serious cases would go to the civil hospital.
      There are no quarters in the hospital for either the Medical Officer or the sisters. There is no surgeon quartered in the barracks. The Medical Officer lives in the town at a distance of 1½ miles from the hospital. There is no telephonic communication.

Comment.- With somewhat extensive alterations this hospital could be made efficient.

*****

PRESTON
Inspected on Saturday 25th April, 1903

Beds – 61, including 6 in isolation block
Sick in hospital at date of visit – 6
Strength of station – 26 Officers, 862 men, 145 women, 263 children.
Royal Army Medical Corps – 1 retired Officer, 1 non-commissioned officer, 5 orderlies, 1 of whom was a cook.

      The hospital is situated in the barracks, and from the date on the head of a rainwater pipe appears to have been erected in 1844. It is built of stone. There is no complete system of water-borne disposal of excreta. Earth closets are used, and many work badly.
      We found this hospital in a disgusting condition of dirt and neglect. The dispensary floor was covered with litter, the drawers full of rubbish; the bread crocks not lately emptied; old newspapers between the bedding; the larder extremely dirty. It is, in fact, difficult to understand how this condition of things, evidently inveterate, could have escaped the notice of those in authority.
      Wards. – Beds of old type; only one of new pattern. Windows tightly shut. Attached to the isolation block was an earth closet which would not act. Ward tables thick with dust. Beds and sackings dirty, and the mattress covers ragged, pillows very hard and lumpy; broken glass in pictures. The ward used for insane patients insecure, barred on one side and not the other. Patient’s clothing – blue jackets, patched with white thread, socks cobbled anyhow, and not marked. Washing looked better than at Lancaster, but not good. Mortuary used as a foul linen store receptacle, and the table filthy. Soiled linen kept in old cookhouse. Ablution room contains an old slate bath resembling a dissecting-room tank. Latrines ill-kept, and smelling. Disinfector house modern and good, but untidy, the disinfector a ‘Thresh.’

*****

REPORT OF A VISIT TO THE HOSPITAL AT SHORNCLIFFE.
I have to report that I visited this hospital at short notice on 6th December, 1902, in company with Colonel Richard H. Quill, Principal Medical Officer of the South-Eastern District.

      The usual garrison at Shorncliffe is about 3,000 strong, but at present the strength is about 1,500 only. The number of troops varies very much from time to time.
The hospital is arranged to accommodate 210 patients, and was probably about half full at the date of our visit. It is at present in charge of Colonel F. H. Hensman, C.M.G. [retired].
The hospital is situated at the commencement of the seaward slope of the Down overlooking the sea just below the plateau on which is Shorncliffe Camp. Its elevation above the sea is probably about 300 feet, and although very exposed the site is a good one.      The buildings are disposed in three lines parallel to the shore, connected by covered steps passing down the slope, and consisted till recently of lines of wooden huts. There are also various outbuildings use for such purposes as the Sisters’ house, isolation hospital, post-mortem room, etc. The most landward of the lines of wooden huts within the last 8 years has been replaced by a two-storied brick building, which is well arranged for the purposes of a modern hospital. With the exception of the Herbert Hospital, which may be considered to be in a class by itself, this portion of Shorncliffe Hospital is the most satisfactory of any of the military hospitals which I have yet visited.
      The administration block is situated to the landward side of the main building. The entrance to the hospital proper is at the centre of the pavilion, and about the staircase are arranged rooms for various purposes, e.g., the steward’s store, single rooms for patients seriously ill, etc. Passing from the central staircase, in an easterly and westerly direction, are the principal wards. The wards themselves are well ventilated, the floor is good, and there are annexes at each end properly arranged. The space provided in the annexes, however, is not sufficient for modern necessities. The bathroom and baths ought to be larger, and though sinks are provided, there are no proper flushing arrangements for the purpose of conveniently washing out bed utensils, etc. When the wooden huts are replaced by the new hospital the arrangements of the annexes should be improved.
      I noted that the windows in the wards were narrower than usual, an arrangement which has obvious disadvantages and for which I could ascertain no adequate reason.
This part of the hospital throughout was clean and in good order. The administration appeared to be carried on in very efficient manner. I noted that a large room had been set apart as a dining-room for patients able to be out of bed. It was well lighted, cheerful, and the advantage is obviously great that such patients should have their meals out of the wards. A day-room is also provided for the patients, and is supplied with journals, magazines, games, etc.
      An operating room has been recently arranged with a sufficient amount of surgical apparatus. Over the operating table is an elaborately ornamented gilt gasolier, which has descended to the hospital from a regimental mess-room; this should be removed to a more suitable place and properly shaded lights put in place. The wooden floor of this room should be replaced by some impervious material.  No clinical laboratory has been arranged up to the present time.
      The appearance and interior arrangements of this portion of the new portion of the hospital are the most satisfactory and efficient that I have yet seen. The hospital actually appears attractive and comfortable.
      The two lines of the hospital buildings nearer the sea consist of the huts already mentioned; they are old, and I am informed soon to disappear. The sooner they vanish the better, for they do no credit to the Army Medical Service. They were kept in as good order as possible, and the patients appeared well looked after.
      The dispensaries, kitchens, stores, pack stores, linen stores, and all the administrative arrangements of the hospital are in excellent order, and evidently receive careful attention from the Medical Officers in charge.
      A small isolation hospital is situated to the landward side of the main buildings. It is well situated for the purpose, but the sanitary annexe, as that of the main building, is too small. I observed that though there was a space for a water-closet, and though this compartment was lined with white tiles, no water-closet or arrangements for one were provided. I was informed that according to regulations a water-closet must not be fitted in an isolation block. This regulation surely requires amendment.
      The post-mortem room occupies half of a small separate building, and is probably sufficient for the purpose. The other half of this building is utilized for storing and sorting the soiled linen previous to its being sent to the laundry.
      The accommodation for the Nursing Sisters is in a separate small house. At present three or four Sisters only are stationed at this hospital. The accommodation is quite good. I noticed that the carpets were exceedingly worn, and in one instance a bedroom carpet had given way right through the centre. The Sister in charge informed me that it was difficult to have these worn carpets replaced. The Sister in charge also remarked on the difficulty of obtaining sufficiently good service at the wages recently fixed. She has had to reduce the wages of the servant to £15 a year, which she thinks is not sufficient.

     Hospital accommodation for women and children – On enquiring into the accommodation provided for women and children, I was informed by the Principal Medical Officer that when he took over charge of the district there was one room only provided for this purpose in the building provided for the accommodation of married non-commissioned officers. This accommodation was inadequate and unsatisfactory. He has since then taken over one of the wooden huts, formerly the Lock Hospital, and has converted a series of rooms into a small hospital for women and children. One patient, a non-commissioned officer’s wife from Dover, was in the hospital at the date of my visit. There were two cots for children and two or three beds for adult patients. There was a separate room arranged as a lying-in room, and this small hospital was in charge of a civilian nurse, recommended by the Sister in charge of the Hospital for Women and Children at Woolwich. The arrangements provided by the Principal Medical Officer are sufficient for temporary purposes only; but everything about this little hospital was clean and well kept. The Principal Medical Officer informed me that he had already spent £120 in arranging this little hospital, the money having been derived from various sources.
      A properly built and comfortably arranged hospital for women and children should certainly be provided at Shorncliffe.
      In front of the hospital buildings, a little lower down the slope of the Down and near the sea, is an ugly-looking, dingy building with a short chimney stack. On enquiry, I found this was a laundry which did the washing for the military institutions from Dover to Hythe. It lies to the windward side of the hospital during the prevalent winds, and the smoke from the chimney causes much inconvenience by passing directly into the hospital wards. It would be a great advantage to move this laundry from its present situation.
      I was much pleased to see the freshness and energy displayed in the administration of the hospital at Shorncliffe, and every encouragement should be given to the Medical Staff of the district and Shorncliffe. The reconstruction of the hospital especially should be pushed on with all possible speed.

JAMES GALLOWAY.
Date of visit,
Saturday, 6th December, 1902

*****

SHREWSBURY
Visited by the Director-General and Dr. Perry on 28th April, 1903.

Beds – 17, modern, inclusive of 3 in isolation block.
Average number of daily sick for last month – 4.
Strength of station – 11 Officers, 177 men, 31 women, and 61 children.
Royal Army Medical Corps – 1 non-commissioned officer, 2 orderlies, 1 a cook.

      Here the sheets were dirty, the patients’ trousers in bad condition, and the linen ragged. The chair covers torn. The ward annexe wants painting and the floor cementing. There is no slop sink and no means of washing bed-pans. The kitchen is clean, the drawers untidy. The mortuary is lumbered up, and the dirty linen is kept with the firewood. The washing is good.



*****
TOP of PAGE