4
REPORT ON THE
12. Of out-door patients there was a total addition of 2,625. Of this increase
the Medical College Hospital contributed the largest share, Howrah came next,
while in the Mayo Hospital and its dispensaries there was a large fall in the
recorded numbers treated.
13. At the Medical College Hospital in 1885 in the surgical dispensary
12.694 cases were treated against 11,804 in 1884. In the medical dispensary the
numbers were 18,029 in 1885 and 15,989 in 1884. Of dental cases 1,413 were
treated as against 1,374. The duty-room and ophthalmic out-patient department
show a decrease of between 500 and 600 each on the year's working. No
explanation of the falling off in the numbers treated in these departments has
been given.
14. The attendance of out-patients at the Mayo Hospital itself is returned
in steady decreasing numbers:—
In 1883 they totalled 40,930 with a daily average of
283.6
In 1884 they fell to 37,999 ditto ditto ...
250.7
And in 1885 still further decreased to 36,193 with
a daily average of
...
...
...
233.8
Dr. Sanders in his report for 1884, attributed the decline to "the closing of
the hospital earlier than usual on Sundays, to afford the resident staff one day's
rest in the seven." In the present report he says "the diminution still continues
owing to the facilities procurable from the large body of native practitioners
who swarm about the town, there being a dispensary or surgery of some kind
in almost every street." The patients who attend the Mayo Hospital chiefly
come from the labouring or coolie class, poor persons whose means hardly admit
of their resorting, in times of sickness, to private practitioners,—practitioners,
who possibly prescribe "gratis," but do not supply medicines, &c., for
nothing. I am unable to accept this explanation as a cause materially
affecting the attendance of out-patients at the Mayo Hospital. I am rather
inclined to ascribe the falling off there to the slackness in the general building
and shipping trades, Which has been exceedingly dull for many months past,
and to the migration of numbers of the labouring classes from the northern
division of the town to the neighbourhood of the "new docks"; for there has
also been a decline in attendance at the Chitpore Dispensary, where the numbers
fell from 23,201 in 1884 to 21,594 in 1885, shewing a total of 1,607 less treated
during the year. Moreover, accommodation for the reception of the sick poor
has been considerably extended in the Campbell Hospital, and it is reasonable to
suppose that very many of the helpless have sought admission into this institution,
rather than trudge the whole width of the town for out-door relief only, at the
Mayo Hospital, where the beds are limited, and the wards generally full.
15. At the Chandney Hospital there was a total addition of 242 in
- p a t i e n t s a n d
1 , 0 7 3
o u t - p a t i e n t s t o t h e n u m b e r s o f 1 8 8 4 . T h e t o t a l h o u s e p a t i e n t s
was 670, while the out-door list reached 70,612.
16. The Howrah Hospital, which is not strictly speaking a Calcutta insti-
tution, shewed an increase of 63 in and 1,669 out-patients.
17. The total treated in the Campbell Hospital was 7,611 in 1885 as
compared with 6,525 in the year 1884, or not far short of the number recorded
in 1875. There is no out-door department at this hospital. The hospital still
holds a number of persons suffering from blindness, and others who should be
classed as incurables. The increase of house patients in this institution is
distributed chiefly as I have previously mentioned, under the headings of fevers,
diarrhœa, dysentery, and diseases asthenic in type. Diarrhœa and dysentery
were very abundant. Malarious fevers were next in frequency, whereas
cholera fell-from a total treated of 236 in 1884 to 196 in 1885. The admissions
from small-pox were 68, or less by 183 cases than in the previous twelve
months.
18. Towards the end of the year an unusual number of applicants sought
admission into this hospital. The pressure for additional accommodation