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Native and European, they will be reconsidered; but at present there is no
reason to believe that they are not sufficient to provide this. The Lieutenant-
Governor would also wish to see the cooking for the European patients improved
at this hospital.
22. At the General Hospital the expenditure on establishment, though less
than in 1878, is still high for the number of patients. But as these are all
Europeans, some excess might be expected. The average daily cost of each
diet at the General Hospital was 7 annas 10 pies reckoned on both paying and
pauper patients. The expenditure on medicines and miscellaneous items was
less than in 1878. This hospital in every department shows the good results of
careful management and personal administrative supervision.
23. In the Campbell Hospital the establishment was increased to provide
proper attendance in the European small-pox wards. There was a trifling
increase in the cost of native diets, the daily average being 2 annas 7.3 pies
against 2 annas 6 pies in 1878. The total charge for diets was Rs. 24,086,
against Rs. 31,348 in 1877, for a much smaller number of patients.
24. In the Police Hospital the general cost was reduced, though the diet
scale was increased. The average daily cost of each diet was 2 annas 9 pies, a
fact which shows that the College Hospital rates are not unduly low. Every
policeman unfit for duty, however trivial or temporary his ailment, is admitted
to the Police Hospital. The number of full diets must therefore be greater in
proportion than in any other institution. Moreover, many of the men were
found to be suffering only from under-feeding and parsimonious living common
among up-countrymen of their class. These patients had of course to be fed
u p . Y e t t h e a v e r a g e c o s t o f d i e t s i n t h e P o l i c e H o s p i t a l i s p e r c e p t i b l y l e s s
than in the College Hospital, where the proportionate number of low and
reduced diets in serious cases is far greater.
25. The charges of the Mayo Hospital and its dependencies in respect of
establishment and manaement rose somewhat. European subscriptions and
other donations showed a large falling off, and the Government expenditure on
medical stores increased. The Surgeon-General draws attention to the heavy
charges made in the case of this and other institutions by the Medical Store
Department for out-patient tickets. Steps should, as suggested, be taken by the
Surgeon-General, in communication with the Superintendent of Government
Printing, for having them more cheaply printed. If this is done, the Lieutenant
-
Governor thinks that it would probably simplify the accounts of the Mayo
Hospital, and place matters on a more satisfactory footing, if Government made
it an annual money grant on account of its medicines, instruments, and forms;
the hospital receiving these on payable indent as other aided institutions now
do, or providing itself with them from England direct. The Surgeon-General
is requested to consider what the amount of such a grant should be, and to place
himself in communication with the governing body of the hospital, in view to
arranging this matter on an equitable basis. The average daily cost of each
native diet in this hospital was 2 annas 8 pies, or less than in the College
Hospital, yet no complaints have ever been made of the insufficiency of the
scale.
26. The Government expenditure on the Howrah Hospital during the year
was increased by a special building grant. The income from paying patients
and the municipality rose slightly, but private subscriptions fell off considerably.
The total expenditure on diets was Rs. 5,498, against Rs. 10,585 in 1878. It
was discovered in 1870 that a fraudulent system of treating the diet-roll had
been going on, in which the cashier, the diet-roll clerk, and the sircar were
concerned. Proper checks have now been applied. The average daily cost of
each European diet in 1879 was 7 annas 4 pies against 9 annas 4 pies in 1878. The
cost of native diets was the same in both years, viz. 1 anna 7 pies. The Surgeon-
General personally inquired into the causes of the very low diet rate for natives
at the Howrah Hospital, and found that it was accounted for by the large
number of moribund cases admitted when too far gone to swallow anything.
To press such patients with food or stimulants would, as the Assistant Surgeon
in charge explained, cause only needless distress. The Civil Surgeon must,
however, see that patients who are able to take food are allowed to want
nothing which their cases require.