PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
'' य 'ग
Reference :-
C.O.885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
22
Society Hospitals.
41. There are four large and two small " hospitals in the town, which are kept up by the various "Society" organisations of which the largest are the Asturians, Dependentes (Clerks), and Galicians. wealthy institutions. The members pay regular subscriptions They are very and have free treatment as in or out patients when necessary. The hospital of the Society of Galicians is situated in large, pretty grounds and is built on the pavilion principle. Most of the buildings are on one floor only, but a few liave two.
There are both large and small wards, some of the pavilions being divided up into numerous small rooms. Each bed has a mosquito net for hanging over at night.
There are only two white nurses in charge, the real nursing being done by attendants, who have had no special training.
One building had been erected for treatment by the various kinds of baths, and also contains a swimming bath. Another is devoted to X-ray and laboratory work, a third is for cases admitted for fever of any kind, and in a fourth there are only tubercular cases,
These institutions are very wealthy, and almost seck out- lets for expenditure of their money.
University Hospital.
42. This is supported by Government funds only, is situated close to the sea, and has a medical and a nursing school attached.
It is a one-storey building. The wards are painted white, are clean, light, and airy, and built off a long corridor on each side alternately. One ward is for lying-in patients only. The nursing is done by white nurses, and appears much more satisfactory than in the Society hospitals.
When a patient is admitted his clothes are all listed and disinfected, and carefully parcelled and stored.
All the milk used is pasteurized.
Jamaica: Kingston Hospital.
43. This hospital, which has a bacteriologist attached, does not require special remark, but I should like to draw attention to the fact that it is supplied with dark rooms fitted for eye examinations and photographic work in con- nection with the X-ray apparatus, and that all fresh food- stuffs, meat, vegetables, &c., immediately ou delivery at the
23
hospital are placed in a mosquito-proof room in connection with the kitchen, prepared there for cooking, and not removed till put on the stove.
Lunatic Asylum.
44. This is a large institution situated outside the town in large grounds with a long sea frontage, under the care of Dr. Williams, to whom I am indebted for the following facts :- It has 1,200 inmates, and is nearly all new, as the earth- quake destroyed much of the previous one.
The new part is of brick, mostly on one floor. The female portion is built in the form of quadrangles with buildings having a verandah running round on the inside on two or three sides. There are many single rooms, but others are larger, and contain several beds.
All the patients have beds which consist of a heavy frame- work, and canvas, with eyelet holes to fix over nails on out- side of frame, is stretched across; these are all taken out and washed in sea water every week.
The small rooms have a very free current of air through them, as at both back and front is an opening about 7 feet by 3 feet with iron bars only. One is a doorway.
The female mess room is simply a large covered shed with- out walls.
Two new buildings have just been put up for male patients, each with two floors; these have lofty light wards, and are painted white inside. Half the wall barred windows with lattice shutters, which can be closed if space is taken up with required. These wards are at one end divided into compart- ments for single patients by thick wood pailings (2 inches by 4 inches), with rounded edges, going up to the ceiling with 3 inch intervals between them.
There is a special ward for those patients suffering from tuberculosis.
The male mess room is the covered-in interval between the two new buildings, and is quite open at each end. All patients have a spray bath every morning. Trough closets with automatic flushing arrangements are being put in.
Dr. Williams informs me that with the adequate bed clothing supplied, the free ventilation gives better health than in the old buildings, and leads to no complications.
A theatre or concert room, which on Sundays is used as a church, has been erected, and a large area for recreation is provided in the grounds.