10 REPORT ON THE
North Suburban
Hospital.
Sumbhoo Nath
Pundit's Dispen-
sary.
Alipore Dispen-
sary.
Arratoon Apcar Dis-
pensary.
Howrah General
Hospital.
Total.
1877. 1878. 1877.
1878. 1877. 1878.
1877.
1878.
1877.
1878.
1877. 1878.
Establishment
3,387 3,385
1,877
2,142 2,868 2,868
772
780
11,545 11,724 20,449 20,899
Bazaar medicines
236
207
30
54
60
56
106
107
703
812 1,135 1,236
European ditto
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
115
118
221
. . . . . .
317
374
. . . . . .
. . . . . . 653
492
Diet
1,439 1,233
. . . . . .
. . . . . . 86
61
. . . . . .
. . . . . . 11,789 10,585 13,314 11,879
Miscellaneous
charges.
1,294
540
879
418 ......
45
7
4
6,674
7,442 8,854 8,449
Building and repairs
137 2,000
1 , 6 2 0
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
6,462
548 8,219 2,548
Total
6,493 7,365
4,521
2,732 3,235 3,030
1,202
1,265
37,173 31,111 52,624 45,503
During the year 1878 the expenditure in the hospitals of Calcutta will
thus appear to have been less by Rs. 1,23,339 when compared with 1877. Each
patient treated cost on an average for everything except medicines, the account
of which I have been unable to obtain, Rs. 1-4-2 in 1878 and Rs. 1-10-3 in
1877.* In the suburban hospitals the expenditure was less in 1878 by
Rs. 7,121, and each patient cost in 1878 Rs. 0-12-6, against Rs. 1-1-7 in 1877.
Taking both city and suburban hospitals, the average cost per patient was
Rs. 1-2-10 in 1878 against Rs. 1-9-D in 1877.
The average cost of each diet for Europeans in the Medical College Hos
pital was 6 annas, in the General Hospital 7 annas 6 pies, in the Howrah
Hospital 9 annas 4 pies. For natives it was in the Medical College 3 annas 8 pies,
in the General Hospital 3 annas 5 pies, in the Howrah Hospital 1 anna 7
pies, Mayo 2 annas 2 pies, Campbell 2 annas 6 pies, Police 2 annas 10 pies,
North Suburban 1 anna 10 pies, Alipore 1 anna 10 pies. The average for
European diets has been 7 annas 7 pies and for native diets 2 annas 6 pies.
There is, however, reason to believe that these averages are not strictly
correct, inasmuch as patients who paid for their own food were in some
instances accounted for as having been fed out of hospital funds. This practice
I desire to put a stop to, and to exclude the patients fed by their friends, or
who buy their own food, in calculating the average cost of each diet.
In accordance with the Resolution of the Government of Bengal on the
Report on the Calcutta Hospitals by a Committee appointed to enquire into
Medical Expenditure in Bengal, dated 25th January 1879, the maximum limit
for the diet of Europeans and Indians, inclusive of all extras and stimulants,
has been now fixed at 8 annas for the former and 3½ annas for the latter. Time
will show whether these rates will prove sufficient after a fair trial—in connec
tion with which it should be noted whether the mortality among the cases
treated has increased above the average rate of some years previously, whether
patients come to hospital as freely as formerly, and also whether those of them
who have the means obtain provisions from outside. Considering the very
wretched condition in which very many native patients are when they apply
for relief, being in the last stages of dysentery and diarrhœa, when rum and
milk, or eggs beat up with rum and milk, ought probably to be their only food,
it may be doubtful whether such nourishment can be provided as abundantly as
required when the price of milk in Calcutta is six or seven seers per rupee if an
average expenditure of 3½ annas is insisted on, and if medical men are expected
to do all that their art suggests in order to save their patients' lives. The Com
mittee's rate of diet-money has only been in force during the present year ;
but in all the hospitals of Calcutta during the whole of last year the screw
was continuously applied for the purpose of reducing expenditure in all
possible ways ; and, as a matter of fact, in all the hospitals the average rate has
been during 1878 less than the three annas and six pies fixed by the Committee
as the maximum rate for native diets. Selecting the Campbell Hospital by way
of example, we find that the death-rate during the past year of rigid economy,
as compared with former years, was very nearly the same as usual, having
been 25.3 per cent. ; in 1877, with the average cost of each diet at 3 annas and
8 pies, the rate of mortality was 24.8 in 1876 each diet on an average cost
3 annas 9 pies, and the death-rate was 25 per cent. on the number treated. It
was 28 in 1875, and the cost per diet 3 annas 11 pies ; and in 1874 each diet
cost 3 annas, and the death-rate was 25.1 per cent. ,It thus appears that of all
patients admitted into this hospital, one quarter of the number perish, which
is a fact to arrest attention, and suggest the question whether this frightful
*The pay of the European medical officers of the Medical College is not taken into account in. striking the
average either for 1877 or 1878.