A letter to the vice-chairman of the Board of Management of the Radcliffe Infirmary on the questions to be considered at the meetings summoned for May 17 & 31, 1866 / [Henry W. Acland].

  • Acland, Henry W. (Henry Wentworth), 1815-1900.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the vice-chairman of the Board of Management of the Radcliffe Infirmary on the questions to be considered at the meetings summoned for May 17 & 31, 1866 / [Henry W. Acland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    principles are under discussion at the Radcliffe In- firmary. They are such as to demand the serious at- tention of the supporters of the Institution, and of all those who take interest in the success and character of the great Charitable institutions of this country. The first question is— Whether it is iciser to contract or extend the benefits of the Hospital in the midst of a groicing population ? The second question is— Whether it is right to spend a considerable sum on e^ilarging an old building, in defiance of settled principles of Hospital construction, when the same sum jadicioushj expended would secure in a building con- structed on the best principles a number of beds equal to that which it has been proposed to provide in an old building in an inferior manner ? So stated, these questions can assuredly receive but one answer. To the first—Extend: do not contract. To the second— What you do afresh, do thoroughly. Let us presently look at each of these questions separately. But before doing so, though you are very familiar with Hospital affairs, let me recapitulate what must be in your mind, and in mine, in voting on either of them. A subscriptional County Hospital, any subscriptional Hospital, is quite a singular Institution. It is one of the contrivances almost peculiar to England for sup- plementing the compulsory arrangements of the State. It is under no State control; the work it does is vo- luntary : it dispenses what benefits it pleases, and as it pleases: it gives to one, refuses to another: it is a voluntary incorporation, doing work which in most countries is done by the Government. In the present day all voluntary institutions are undergoing scrutiny. If they suit the wants of the age