Annual report : 1944 / Royal Sussex County Hospital.

  • Royal Sussex County Hospital. nb2009017967.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report : 1944 / Royal Sussex County Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/32 (page 4)
    REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1944. THE Board of Management have pleasure in submitting to the Governors the 117th Annual Report of The Royal Sussex County Hospital. They regret, however, that this Report, like its immediate predecessors, has had to be epitomised to accord with war-time economy, although the services rendered by the Hospital and the support received from many old and new friends during 1944 merit the presentation of a much fuller and more detailed statement. The Board again express their warm appreciation of the practical help and guidance that the President, The Countess Buxton, G.B.E., has given at Meetings of the Board, the Emergency Executive Committee and the Nursing Committee, and in other active spheres concerned with the welfare of the Hospital. The Work of the Year. Only those in direct touch with the inner management and working of the Hospital can readily assess the demand that is constantly made upon, and as constantly met by, the Medical, Surgical, Nursing and other Services ; but the following few references to the number of In-patients and Out¬ patients treated, and the succeeding special paragraphs will indicate, in some degree, the volume of the work that the Hospital has per¬ formed during the past year. The average number of beds occupied throughout the year was 267.87 and the maximum number under treatment in the wards on any one day was well over 300. The average number of In-patients under treatment passed the record for 1943 by 13.47. This bare fact in itself clearly confirms what has just been said. It is perhaps necessary to repeat in essence the remarks made in the previous report about the “ Total Complement of Beds ” (376) in comparison with the much lower number occupied. The total complement cannot be said to have been available in the ordinary sense of the word, since the maximum number that was permitted to be occupied remained restricted by the Ministry of Health—a precautionary measure necessary to any efficient emer¬ gency hospital scheme. The total number of attendances of Out-patients during the year was 178,487 in comparison with 183,279 for 1943. The new Out-patients received numbered 23,685 compared with 25,046 during the previous year. The work of the Latilla Department, specially referred to later, accounts for a very large proportion of the attendances of Out-patients. A welcome though partial relaxation of certain war-time restrictions and air-raid precautions has enabled the Board in