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The work of admitting patients was commenced on the 21st January 1898.
sDay after clay Maratha patients poured in and the wards were swarmed within a
pace of fifteen days and new wards were run up to meet the increasing demand.
In all ten wards were erected to accommodate 250 patients and a contact camp to
accommodate 300 contacts. Besides these House Surgeon's quarters, Hospital Assis-
tant's quarters, Nurses' quarters, servants' quarters, &c., numbering 76 sheds in all,
have been erected one after another to accommodate the patients, their relatives and
friends and the hospital staff.
In the monsoon the wards in the interior of the hospital compound were
flooded with rain water, they being situated on a low ground and there being no
proper outlet for it, and were found unhabitable, so the segregation sheds, situated
along the Connaught Eoad line, which are built on a high level ground and which
were found to keep dry during the rain, were used as hospital wards.
During the epidemic of 1899, there had been such a rush of patients at this
hospital, that the ten wards situated within the interior of the compound were full,
and more accommodation was found necessary to meet the increasing demand, so the
wards along the road side used in the last rainy season for the hospital were made
ready, and the convalescents, who numbered 120, were removed to these wards and
room was made for new admissions. Also a new ward was built by the Sirdar to ac-
commodate 40 patients.
The whole management of the hospital was transferred to the Plague Com-
mittee about the middle of February 1898. During all this time the hospital was in
charge of Mr. L. B. Dhargalker and under the direct supervision of Major J. P.
Barry, I. M. S. About the middle of February the number of patients went up to
150 and more medical aid became necessary. The Plague Committee therefore
appointed Dr. C. Parsons, M.D. (London), as the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital
on 20fch February. The number of patients steadily increased and went up to 190 in
the month of March 1898. This number includes the convalescent and the observation
patients. With the decline of the Plague.the number of admissions became less and
less and the number of discharged patients increased, so that in the month of June
there were only 20 patients left in the hospital.
The charge of the hospital was taken up by the Municipality in the month of
July 1898, and since then it has been maintained by that body, while the building of
new sheds, &c., is still carried on by the Sirdar.
The Maratha hospital is considered to be a morlel hospital, as it has its
plague wards, observation wards, contact and segregation camps, all within the same
compound, so that the patient's friends and relatives can live in the same compound,
and the patient does not feel the pang of being forcibly separated from his people as
was the case in other hospitals. It has been very popular amongst the poor classes
who voluntarily seek admission into this institution.
The hospital authorities had to make allowance for the ignorance and prejudice
of the people who are averse to go to hospitals, and had to create in them a taste for
hospital life. Masses as a rule are quite ignorant of the comforts and tender nursing
the poor receive in every hospital, but with persistent coaxing and allowing the patients
and their relations certain indulgences, the poor people have taken a liking for this
institution more than others.
The relations and friends of patients are freely welcomed on all occasions, are
allowed to stay near thoir patient, and if possible to help the staff in nursing them.
Some of these people are no doubt very useful in nursing the patients and do every-
thing in their power to ensure comfort and happiness to them. In some cases these