Causes of
mortality.
Cholera.
Dieting.
Establishment.
REPORT ON THE CAMPBELL (SEALDAH) HOSPITAL
For the year 1873.
ON the 1st July 1867 this hospital was opened by the Justices of the Peace for the
Town of Calcutta as a "Municipal Pauper Hospital."
On the 1st of December 1873 it was transferred. by the corporation to the Government
of Bengal, for an hospital of practical and clinical instruction in connection with the
Campbell Medical School, Sealdah.
The following figures exhibit the admissions, discharges, deaths, and transfers during
t h e y e a r : — •
Remained on the 1st January 1873.
401
Admitted during the year
4,870
5,271
Discharged
3,236
Died
1,522
Transferred to the Dullunda Lunatic Asylum
104
Remaining on the 31st December 1873
409
5,271
The mortality, classified as follows, shows the time after admission at which death took
p l a c e : —
Died within 24 hours
289
, , , , a week
506
,, ,, a mouth
555
,, ,, 3 months
172
1 , 5 2 2
The average daily sick in hospital during the year has been 295.49.
The percentage of deaths, inclusive of moribunds, has been 28 . 87, and exclusive of
moribunds, 24·74.
The number of admissions during the year under report has been 4,870, against 5,212
during the dengue fever year of 1872, showing a decrease of more than 300; while the average
daily sick has been 295, against 283 in the preceding year, giving an increase of 12 patients
daily in hospital for 1873, as compared with 1872. From the above figures it appears that
the average number of days passed in hospital by each patient was 19 in 1872, as against 22
days in 1873, a fact which I attribute to an increased number of aged, blind, and incurable
cases, who have made this hospital their home for the remainder of their lives.
As it is now one of the objects of the institution to afford instruction to the vernacular
medical class students, it becomes a question whether it should be so largely used as it has
been for an asylum for incurables.
The death-rate for the year has been 288 per thousand, against 277 in 1872, showing
a slight increase. The deaths, as usual, are due to chronic diarrhœa, sloughing dysentery,
phthisis, general dropsy, debility, and cholera. The number of cholera cases has been greater
during the year as compared with the past three years 1870, 1871, and 1872, and the one per
cent. increase in the mortality shown in this report may be thus partly accounted for. Return
C shows the admissions and deaths from cholera during the years 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1873.
T h e d e a t h - r a t e o f t h i s h o s p i t a l h a s f o r s o m e y e a r s r e c e i v e d m u c h a t t e n t i o n f r o m t h e
government and medical department, and in my last annual report the subject was fully
entered into and explained, showing that as long as the present class of cases, viz. the
hopeless and rejected of other hospitals, as , well as the dying who were picked up in the
streets, were admitted, so long the mortality would of necessity continue high, as more than
one-half of them die within the week of admission, and are beyond the physician's art—many
in fact the while on the way to the hospital
.
The improvement in accommodation, diet, and establishment allowed since 1867, when
the hospital was transferred to the present building, as compared with that in force prior to
that year, when located in the old gowkannah sheds, reduced the death-rate from 400 per
thousand to its present rate, which is shown in the subjoined table (A) for the past eight
years. Now that a further increase has been made in the hospital staff, and the institu
–
tion forms an important part of a large vernacular medical school, it is hoped that a
further reduction in the yet sad mortality may be obtained.
Dieting.—The cost of dieting has been exceedingly low, having been only Rs. 4-12-3 per
head per mensem, or Rs. 0-2-6 per head per diem.
Establishment.—Some increase in the establishment has been applied for and is under
the consideration of the medical department.
Transfer of the.
hospital to
government.
Statistics of the
year.
Mortality.
Death.rate.
High death-rate
explained.