28
REPORT ON THE
but I hope that attention having been called to the subject they may become
still more uniform in future. I do not think there is any real extravagance
anywhere. In 1877 the cost of European diets was at the Presidency General
Hospital 10 annas 3½ pies, at the Medical College Hospital 9 annas 4 pies, at
Howrah, where 85 per cent. were paying patients, 12 annas 7 pie, so that the
present cost is much less than formerly. As regards diets for natives, the cost at
the Campbell, Chandney, Howrah, and Police Hospitals approximate each other
very closely (average 2 annas 6 pies); so do the Medical College Hospital,
Dufferin Victoria Hospital, and Mayo Hospital, (average 3 annas 3¼ pies), but the
latter group are on the average 9¼ pies higher than the former. The Mayo
Hospital was in 1877 the best and most economically managed of the Calcutta
hospitals. It then fed its patients at the rate of 2 annas 7 ⅓ pies. In 1892
the rate was 3 annas 81/5pies, 21/5 pies over the sanctioned maximum, and this
year it again heads the list with a rate of 3 annas 5 pies. The Superintendent
gives no satisfactory reason for the increase. The class of patients is the same
as it was in 1877. Food is not materially dearer, and if it were would affect
all the institutions equally. The true cause is probably to be found in the
increasing independence of this hospital of Government control. The resident
medical officers are no longer Government servants, and the Inspector-General
of Civil Hospitals has ceased to be a member of the Committee. Yet Govern
-ment pays 60.22 per cent. of the total cost. The Medical College Hos
-pital has always cost more than the smaller institutions, owing to its large
number of important surgical cases. At the Dufferin Victoria Hospital it is
important to attract patients.
61.
Miscellaneous charges —include forms and stationery, lighting, cloth for
bandages, contingent expenses, coal, rates and taxes, clothing, the burning
and burying of dead, and a number of other items varying in different institu
-tions and from year to year. No details are given in the form ordered by
Government, and it would delay this report greatly to call for them, while it
is doubtful if any useful comparisons could be drawn. The expenditure at
each hospital will be found in statement V, and it may suffice to say that the
total Rs. 76,679-14-3 was Rs. 1,420-1-7 less than in 1892.
62.
Building and Repairs.—Similar remarks apply to this heading. The
heavy quadrennial repairs are done as far as possible in different years for
different hospitals, to suit the convenience of the Public Works Department.
The requirements also vary with architectural and structural conditions, and the
control of the expenditure does not rest with the Medical Department. Comparison
is therefore impossible. The total for 1893 was Rs. 7,902-3-7 less than in 1892.
63. I now pass on to discuss the finances of individual institutions as in
former reports.
Medical College Hospital —with a decrease of 29 in and 569 out-patients,
this hospital spent Rs. 14,038-4 less than in 1892. The amount contributed by
Government was Rs. 16,258-12-8 less, and the receipts from paying patients and
port funds, Rs. 2,780-2-6, greater. Diets, contingencies, clothing, European
medicines and instruments, miscellaneous charges, are all less than in the
previous year, but the chief reduction, Rs. 11,806-8-6, was in the Public Works
Department's charges for buildings and repairs. Lighting was more expensive by
Rs. 190-3-9, owing to the removal of the out-patients department from Chuni Lal
Seal's Dispensary (now the cholera ward) to the ground floor of the hospital,
where gas has to be used. Country medicines cost a little more, Rs. 116-12-9
; t a x e s i n c r e a s e d b y R s . 5 5 3 - 8 o w i n g t o a r e - a s s e s s m e n t a p p r o v e d b y t h e P u b l i c
Works Department ;establishment was Rs. 1,525-5-9 higher, owing to the appoint
-ment of a medical registrar and the pay of an extra officer during the absence of
a resident medical officer on privilege leave. The main items of expenditure
have been noticed in preceding paragraphs. The decrease in cost of diet was
mainly due to a diminished number of European diets. The comparatively high
rate of its native diets of late years is accounted for by the price of milk having
risen from 8 to 6½ seers per rupee since 1890. The large number of great
surgical operations also tends to keep the rates high, such cases requiring
more liberal diets than others. European medicines cost less by Rs. 1,254-10-5,
chiefly owing to less expensive surgical dressings, and miscellaneous charges
were Rs. 1,267-13-9 below the figures of 1892. Fewer cases were sent to the