The Express.
London, England, 1866-06-06 00:00:00

TREATMENT OF TAE SICK IN LONDON

WuRKHOUSEB.

rniMonclay Mr. 8.. Basil Cane, a special commis-
sioner of tc,he Poor-law Board, opened an inquiry at the
Strand I. nion Workhouse on charges made against the
management of the sick and infirm in that place by a per-
son-who had Leld the position of head-nurse there. This
is the first of a series of investigations which, it is ex-
pected, will be instituted into the several workhouses, the
management of which has been described by the late head-
nusse in them in papers laid before the Poor-law Board
by she Earl of Carnarvon, for the Association for the Im-
provement of Metropolitan Workhouse Infirmaries. There
were many guardians present, and Mr. Ernest Hart and
Mr. J. C. Parkinson attended for the association.
Matilda Breton was called and sworn. She said she was
formerly head (paid) nurse at the Strand Union Workhouse,
and she took charge of the sick and infirm inmates on the
21st of August last. There were twenty-two wards in all
in her charge,and there were sick people in all of them. The
claasification of the sick in the house was very bad indeed—
much worse than there was any need for—and the nursing
of the sick and the crowding of the wards were a positive
disgrace. The medicine was given at any hour or anyhow
by!theinurses, who were all paupers with the exception of the
head nurse, and it was of no =frequent occurrence that the
medicine from a bottle, given to one patient at one time,
was given to another at another time. The pauper nurses
seemed to have the whole control over the diets of the
sick, and it very frequently happened that the beer was
stopped of all the sick and infirm patients, who were told
that there was none in the house. This happened about
once a week. Once complained to the matron, but such a
fuss and bother was made about it—the matron scolding
the patients and others who complained for complaining
to the nurse—that she never again complained. The ra-
tions of meat, too, the poor people said, were often short
in-quantity. The stimulants, as wine and spirits, ordered
by the medical officer, were handed over to the patients
themselves on the master's order. Witness, on first going
into the house, had administered them herzelf, as in
other hospitals, at stated times ; but the paupers
wanted to have these things by them, and
she had good reason to believe that the stimulants were
given to thepauper nurses toobtain attention, sold tothem,
or stolen by them. Another evil connected with the house
was, that able-bodied paupers were wandering over the
sink wards. Not merely husbands who came to see sick
wives, and wives who came to see sick husbands, but
others who came to beg or buy the uneaten meals of the
patients. The patient§ sold their food to pay for their
washing, for the washing which was done in the house by
pauper laundresses was so badly done for those who did
not pay for it, that the poor people would do anything
rather than wear the things. Witness,whenever she saw any
of these badly-washed clothes, sent them back again, and she
had sent the same things back three times ; but the
laundry women did not care, and they seemed quite inde-
pendent of the master and matron. These women were
often drunk, and they got the drink from the nurses, so
witness had good reason for believing, and the nurses
obtained it from the patients. This bad been told her by
one of the laundry women, who had been locked up in the
receiving ward for being drunk and disorderly. The wards
under witness's charge were very badly ventilated—in fact
the atmosphere in them was so bad that she loathed the
going into them. The attendance was very bail, the pauper
nurses being quite unfit for their office ; an instance
of which she gave in the fact that on one
occasion two of these nurses, both of whom were sick them-
selves, in endeavouring to raise a sick man, so pulled him
along the bed that a portion of his skin, which had ad-
hered to the sheet, was torn off, and a large place in his
back was left bleeding. This was a bed sore forming
through the man not being properly changed. He
died the day after this happened. A great part of her
time was taken up in searching over the house for beds
for the patients, who were removed long before they
were well, to make room for others who were worse ;
and though they were warded in the sick
ward, sick slept all over the house, down even
to the receiving ward ; and when this was full,
some clean patients were sent into the dirty
ward (the ward for " dirty " came). Some of the poor
sick people, after being in the sick ward all day, had, in
going to another part of the house to sleep, to cross an
open yard, and this in all weathers. She instanced as
the evil arising from this practice two cases, one in which
a poor man who was getting well, took cold and got
erysipelas ; and another, a young woman, who catching
cold had an attack of rheumatism. The man she had
mentioned was sent to the foul ward and placed between
an itch case and a man covered with sores. The doctor could
not help this, as the whole house was full. Each ward had a
pauper nurse and helper, and these persons were not com-
petent to perform their duties. She said she always found
medical officers kind to the patients, and she had not
found guardians unwilling to find comforts for the sick if
their wants were made known to them.
In the course of a long crosp-examination by the commis-
sioner it was further elicitedthat the nurses of the child-
ren in the house used to sell the children's milk to the
patients for a id. a pint, and that the medical officer had
had this proved to him, fur he punished the women for
doing it.
In cross-examination by Mr. Ernest Hart the witness
stated that one of the pauper male nurses was dismissed or
dpoaed from his position for tampering with the patients'
food. She was not permitted to know the exact
reason, and the nurse was succeeded by an ex-potman who
had never seen a sick-ward before, and who was so infirm
himself that one of the sick patients assisted him for half
the extra rations and half the emoluments, which
amounted to la. a week, the share being 6d. each.
The master also cross-examined the witness, but without
altering her evidence, and many of his questions the com-
missioner considered unnecerlary.
The Chairman of the guardians then asked some ques-
tions not bearing on the case, as to why the witness had
not written to the guardians and informed them. She re-
plied that she had told a committee of the house and
they had taken no notice. He then went on to address
some observations to her of a character which a guardian
considered insulting, and said the chairman was not justi-
fied in putting, for the witness had spoken very openly.
The Commissioner agreed, and said the witness had given
her evidence in a very straightforward manner.
The proceedings were then adjourned.