St Thomas' Hospital

“ Why, to my certain knowledge, it has just proved a broken staff, and let down scores of working-men into the gutter. But my ‘Temperance Hospital’ has helped back many a poor fellow out of the gutter, and set him on his feet again. It’s a free hospital, too, and we’re never full; we takes all patients as comes.”
The inside of the house was as suggestive of Thomas’s principles and eccentricities of character as the outside. ”

“ In England the surviving memorials of the martyr are mostly, from the nature of the case, only recognisable as such when their history is known. One of the most interesting is St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark. The present hospital is historically identical with one established by the citizens of London in 1552, in the place of an Augustinian house, devoted to the like charitable work, which they had bought of the king on its dissolution in 1538. ”

“ The disadvantages, inseparable from general hospitals, are such as can never be counterpoised by all the regularities of medicine and regimen. Nature and kind nursing save a much greater proportion in our plain way, at a smaller expence, and with less abuse. One branch only of hospital institution is wanting with us; that is, a general establishment for those laboring under difficult cases of chirurgery. The aids of this art are not equivocal. But an able chirurgeon cannot be had in every parish. ”

“ Any careful observer standing at the door of a general hospital, and watching the throng of out-patients waiting wearily to see the doctor, will be able to distinguish a score of cases for which a temporary rest with wholesome food and the sympathy and loving-kindness that refresh the soul would bring true healing.
No large establishment in the nature of a hospital or a refuge affords the kind of help for such distress as theirs. They cannot be dealt with as occupants of wards ”

“ Nay, even at the least, the alleviation of suffering to those on whom death had already laid his hand has been no small thing; and when we know that of 240,000 out-patients who have received advice and medicines, and 10,400 in-patients whose cases have warranted their admission to the wards, a large number of actual cures have been effected since the establishment of this hospital, we are entitled to regard the institution as one of the most useful that we have ever visited together. ”

“ When the centenary of the Hospital was celebrated in 1879, a suggestion was made that an event so interesting in the history of the charity would be most fittingly commemorated by the establishment or a Suburban Hospital, where patients whose diseases are of a chronic character could be treated with advantage to themselves, and with relief to the parent institution, which is always so pressed for room that many patients have to be sent out earlier than the medical officers like. ”

“ Thomas's Hospital, he commenced general practice at Croydon in 1852. In 1865 he graduated M.B. and in 1859 M.D. at the London University, and in 1883, when he gave up general for consulting practice, he was admitted a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London. He was lecturer on public health at St. Thomas's Hospital 1875-84, ond in 1881 he was elected a vice-president of the Social Science Association. ”

“ Thomas’s Hospital, and saw the noble fabric in a good forwardness in his lifetime, assigning about two hundred thousand pounds towards the building, and endowing it, insomuch that it is computed there may be an ample provision for four hundred unhappy people, who shall be given over by physicians and surgeons as incurable. ”

“ In each of the six wards, of which four are on the ground floor, there is a head-nurse and an assistant, with six helpers for the children's, and four for the adult department, beside the night nurses, who sit up in case of any emergency. There is accommodation for 250 sufferers and for the 40 nurses, attendants, and domestics required for the service of the hospital; so the 220 patients there now, represent the approaching period when a new wing will have to be added, even if only the urgent cases are to be admitted. ”

“ It is intended that the hospital should be a model to the whole kingdom of what such an institution ought to be; the latest and best of modern appliances, both sanitary and surgical, will be introduced. There will be in and out departments, completely isolated one from the other, though with a door of communication. From sixty to seventy beds will be provided, special wards for a certain class of cases, adequate waiting-rooms for out-patients, and the necessary rooms for the officers and medical attendants, all being on an ample scale. ”

“ As a rule many weeks and months of care and attention are needed to restore the general health of those who may have, while in the hospital, successfully recovered from an operation, but there has not hitherto been the needful funds or any organisation for following up such cases after they have left Sparkhill. ”

“ At the commencement of 1870 the Hospital was removed to Broad Street, to the building formerly known as the Lying-in Hospital, an out-patient department, specially erected at a cost of about £3,250, being opened at the same time (January) in Steelhouse Lane, nearly opposite the mansion first used. The Broad Street institution has accommodation for about fifty children in addition to a separate building containing thirty beds for the reception of fever cases, the erection of which cost £7,800 ”

“ The neighbors carried him into the house, and persuaded him to send for a doctor. The doctor came, and said the leg was very badly hurt, and that his patient would have to lie in bed for fully a month.
One night soon afterwards Thomas had a vision. He saw a bright light come through the east window of the room in which he lay, which seemed to move along the wall until it was opposite to where he was lying, when it stopped. A voice came from the light, which said: "Go to the hospital, and have that limb taken off; for you have a work to perform which you cannot do with the limb on." ”

“ The people's playground is fitly consummated by the {252} people's hospital. That the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, Victoria Park, might well be called "the people's," is shown, not because it is supported by state aid or by charitable endowment, on the contrary, it depends entirely on those voluntary contributions and subscriptions which have hitherto enabled it successfully to carry on a noble work, but yet have only just sufficed to supply its needs, "from hand to mouth." Yet it is essentially devoted to patients who belong to the working population. ”

“ I should be glad to hear that some other charitable donor had sent in like manner an offer of funds to fill those two great vacant wards which, waiting for patients, are among the saddest sights in this hospital.
{261} HEALING THE SICK.
Amidst the numerous great charities which distinguish this vast metropolis, hospitals must always hold a prominent if not preeminent place. Helpless infancy, the weakness and infirmity of old age, and prostration by sudden accident, or the ravages of disease, are the conditions that necessarily appeal to humanity. ”

“ To send patients who require the medical care and attendance which can only be provided in a hospital for the special disorders from which they suffer, or who are afflicted with incurable diseases, is unjust, both to the poor creatures themselves and to the charity which cannot receive them. ”

“ Thomas's Hospitals, and held this office till his death in 1639. He was a noted surgeon in his day.
His son, Edward Molines (d. 1663) , was appointed surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital in his father's lifetime, and surgeon for the cutting of the stone to St. Bartholomew's, 6 July 1639, in succession to his father. He appears to have been a man of violent temper, as on one occasion he defied the authority of the Barber-Surgeons' Company, to which he belonged, being fined in consequence, and never holding any office in the company. ”

“ Orthopædic and Spinal Hospital—Was founded in June, 1817; the present establishment in Newhall Street being entered upon in December, 1877. All kinds of bodily deformity, hernia, club feet, spinal diseases, malformations, and distortions of limbs, &c., are treated daily (at two o'clock) free of charge, except where instruments or costly supports are needed, when the patient must be provided with subscribers' tickets in proportion to the cost thereof. In 1881 and 1882, 4,116 cases received attention, 2,064 being new cases, and 678 from outside Birmingham. ”

“ It should be remembered that the Seaford Hospital is not for the sick, but for persons recovering from sickness,—those for whom the best medicines are regular and ample meals, grand bracing air, sea-baths, long hours of quiet and restorative sleep, and that general direction of their daily progress towards complete recovery, which will often make them strong and set them up completely, even in the twenty-eight days of their sea-side sojourn. ”

“ Among hospitals are the Italian, the Homœopathic, the National for the paralysed and epileptic, the Alexandra for children with hip disease, and the Hospital for sick children. The Foundling Hospital, Guilford Street, was founded by Thomas Coram in 1739. ”

“ Thomas then asked permission to found the first hospital for women in India in His Highness's name, to which he replied, 'As you think proper, so do.' So His Highness Mahomed Kallub Ali Khan, Bahadur, Nawab of Rampore, has the honor of making the first generous contribution toward founding the first woman's hospital in India. ”

“ As no two persons see the same thing with the same eyes, my view of hospital life must be taken through my glass, and held for what it is worth. Certainly, nothing was set down in malice, and to the serious-minded party who objected to a tone of levity in some portions of the Sketches, I can only say that it is a part of my religion to look well after the cheerfulnesses of life, and let the dismals shift for themselves; believing, with good Sir Thomas More, that it is wise to "be merrie in God." ”

“ More than this, however, amongst the contributions which are made for the support of this hospital, there must be reckoned those collected by working men of the district in their clubs and associations, in token of the appreciation of benefits bestowed by such an institution to failing men and women, wives and shopmates and relatives, who being threatened or actually stricken down with one of those diseases which sap the life and leave the body prostrate, require prompt skill and medical aid, even if they are {253} not in absolute need of nourishing food and alleviating rest. ”

“ A small payment, weekly, is looked for, if the patient can afford it, but a fair number are admitted free, and a much larger number visited, the average number of patients being nearly 5,000 per annum. Information given on enquiry.
Hospital for Women.—This establishment in the Upper Priory was opened in October, 1871, for the treatment of diseases special to females. No note or ticket of recommendation is required, applicants being attended to daily at two o'clock, except on Saturday and Sunday. ”

“ He was admitted candidate of the College of Physicians 25 June 1752, fellow on the same date of the next year, was censor on several occasions, and delivered the Harveian oration in 1757. In 1787, in consideration of his failing health, his son Thomas was appointed his assistant at Bethlehem Hospital. ”

“ The iron gates open into a square, in the middle of which is a brazen statue of the founder, by Mr. Scheemakers, dress’d in his livery gown, very well executed.
In the front of the pedestal is this inscription:
Thomas Guy sole founder of this hospital in his life time. A.D. MDCCXXI.
On the west side of the pedestal is represented in basso relievo, the parable of the good Samaritan; on the south side is 115Mr. Guy’s arms; and on that side of the pedestal facing the east, is our Saviour healing the impotent man. ”

“ A dozen doctors, with each his smattering of patients, can learn and teach but little while they work apart: whereas a regular system of inquiry and record, in action where the sick are brought in in battalions, is the best possible agency. Not only are these objects lost when surgeons are allowed to make the great hospital a mere receptacle for a cluster of small and desultory hospitals, but the advantages of a broad study of diseases and their treatment are lost. ”

“ Such disadvantages might be entirely removed if parliament would decide to throw open every poor-law infirmary for clinical purposes, and to have connected with each such establishment a responsible visiting medical staff, consisting of the best qualified men to be found in the community which each hospital serves. The old prejudice against hospital treatment has disappeared, for the least intelligent members of the population now understand that, when a citizen is sick, there is no place so good as the wards of a well-administered hospital. ”

“ In overcoming this prejudice, a great deal depends upon the character of the institution itself. It is not enough to establish hospitals:—they must be attractive and comfortable to such a degree that they become highly desirable to prospective patients. They must be well run, well managed, the food must be good, and the patients well treated. To obtain segregation, we must have hospitals which offer great advantages over the home.
Home Care of the Advanced Case. If there are no hospital facilities, it then becomes the nurse’s duty to give nursing care to the bed-ridden patient. ”