12
REPORT ON THE
mary
35. The charge for bazar medicines and hospital necessaries differed
very little from that of the previous year.
It appears high when compared with the College Hospital, but the
comparison cannot be made without close adjustment of items between this
and the miscellaneous heading.
36. The cost of English medicines was much smaller than it has ever
been. With forms and books the total was Rs. 3,727-9-6, and this is, in
Dr. Jones' opinion, "about what it will be in future," unless patients increase
largely in number. In 1878 the cost, after deducting credits, was Rs. 4,579,
and Rs. 11,473 in 1877, or perhaps Rs. 11,000 if credits were noticed.
37. Dieting charges amounted to Rs. 23,908, against Rs. 29,204 in
1878 and Rs. 48,954 in 1877. The average daily cost per patient was
7 annas and 10 pie, reckoned on the outlay for paying as well as pauper patients.
38. It will be observed that in this hospital reduction of numbers treated
has led to reduction in cost of diet, while no such result has attended a fall
in numbers at the Medical College. The reason, as regards numbers only,
is doubtless this. The wards at the General Hospital are not always full.
If numbers increase, more beds are occupied and more diets issued, and vice
versâ. At the College the wards are said to be always full. The daily
number fed is therefore neither more nor less, whether the total treated in the
year rise or fall. A rise in total number will mean that patients have come
and gone more rapidly, and a fall that they have stayed longer; but the
diets will be affected only by those minor changes which the earlier and. the
later days of illness dictate.
39. Miscellaneous charges for 1879 appear to advantage in the account.
They include Rs. 71, the cost of registers and forms which in 1878 was taken
with medical stores. The cost of lighting, which in 1877 was Rs. 5,054, fell
in 1879 to Rs. 1,683. On clothing Rs. 261 were spent, and petty repairs were
charged as miscellaneous to the amount of Rs. 180.
40. Work executed by the Department of Public Works cost Rs. 6,131
in 1879, against Rs. 5,263 in 1878.
41. Campbell Hospital.— In this hospital there are no funds or special
endowments, no invested capital therefore, or balances, to be shown under the
first head. The only source of income in former years besides the Government
has been the Municipality, which contributes Rs. 30,000 annually, and certain
small receipts from sale of grass, fishing of tanks, and recoveries of value of lost
property. In 1879, for the first time, payments from patients were received,
which, with the aforesaid small realizations, produced a total during the
year of Rs. 2,219-7-3. Deducting this and the payment from the town, there
was a net expenditure by Government of Rs. 36,912. Clothing and property
of patients who died were sent to the civil court for sale; but no account
was rendered, and the value remains unknown. The corresponding outlay in
1878 was Rs. 34,458. The reasons for the excess will appear below.
42. The cost of establishment was increased mainly by additional
attendance required for the large number of European small-pox cases. The
increment on 1878 was Rs. 794. The excess over earlier years is due to the
debiting of the hospital with a portion of the Superintendent's salary, which
had been previously charged to the school. The cost of bazar medicines, &c.,
fell in 1879 to Rs. 1,929. It was Rs. 2,905 in 1878, was Rs. 4,546 in 1877,
and Rs. 6,052 in 1876. English medicines cost Rs. 2,290 in 1879, against
Rs. 2,940 in 1878; but as this latter figure includes forms and registers, the
former should for comparison be taken as Rs. 2,388.
43. There was an increase of Rs. 210 in the charge for diets. The
requirements of the small-pox ward are sufficient to explain this, as well as
the trifling rise from 2 annas 6 pie to 2 annas 7.3 pie in the average cost
of the whole of the diets. If extras issued in that ward be excluded, the cost
of diet will be found to be smaller than in the previous year. With the
above disadvantage, and with an average number of daily patients (404)
which exceeded by 61 the number in 1877, the dietary charges in 1879 were
Rs. 24,086, and in 1877 were Rs. 31,348.
44. Miscellaneous items showed some increase in 1879. Very little money
had been spent on bedding and clothing in the previous year, and the charge