The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-10-01
HOSPITAL IS
NOT Up TO DATE
DIR. Lane Urges Local Sup
port That it May Be
Made So
EQUIPPED FAIRLY
WELL SURGICALLY
But i'm Medical Way it Provides Little
More than Can be Secured in the
Home of a Paticnt-High Time People
Took Hold Of Proposition.

Home of a Paticnt-High Time People
Took Hold of Proposition.
/ To the People of BrattlebOrO -
| In these days of extreme and active
competition, the modern hospital and
the medical profession have not been for
gotten You of the older generation can
we'll recall the doctor of the countryside.
| You can remember his modest but well
groomed appearance. his very intimate
association with each and every family :;
his deep love for them all, and their pro-
! found respect and admiration for him
! their doctor. His calls were answered
always. day or night, winter or summer,
sometimes with small remuneration, and
more often perhaps with none at all
But they all loved him-each and every
one-from the infant in arms to the man
of ripened years about to cross the Great
Divide. No one has ever improved upon
the words of Will Carleton:
But perhaps it still is better that his
busy life is done;
He has seen old views and patients dis
appearing. one by one;
He has learned that Death is master both
of Science and of Art;
He has done his duty fairly, and has
acted out his part.
And the strong old country doctor.
And the weak old country doctor.
Is entitled to n furlough for his brain
and for his heart
The spirit of cOmmercialism may not
seem, perhaps, quite so real as applied to
the hospital and the medical profession,
vet it is, nevertheless, more or less true.
But a very few years ago the BrattleborO
Memorial hospital was considered quite
an up-to-date institution and we'll
equipped for the care of surgical. med
ical contagious. ObStetrical-in fact. any
case of accident or illness that might de
mand its care But does such a situation
now exist at the Memorial hospital? In
deed it does not. In the past 10 or II
years it has resolved itself into fairly
well equipped surgical unit
Ask for the admission of a woman
about to become a mother; ask for the
admission of a child of six months, suffer
ing with ricketts,: ask for the admission of
a 10-year-old girl with scarlet fever. who
need of hospital care. Ask these things
for yourself, and listen to the answer.
1t will be a very negative reply, leaving
no doubt as to its meaning. Let the
doctor of the smaller town bring to our
hospital a purely medical case. expecting
advanced lines of treatment because of
supposed advanced methods of diagnosis.
Will he go away with a good impression
of the BrattlebOro Memorial hospital?
| am sure he Will not. At the home of
the patient. with a graduate nurse work
Mg with the good old country doctor"
and | say that with the very--deepest
feeling of respect and sincere admiration
the patient will receive treatment very
nearly, if not quite as much up-to-date
and efficient as at the hospital. Now is
such a hospital serving the needs of
community such as ours: In my mind
feel that it is not.
You ask me then. What is the
Z a In,
these days the extremely high prices, es-
pecially as applied to medical. surgical
supplies and overhead hospital expenses.
many of the things so much needed at our
hospital are almost prOhibitive. The
trustees of the Thomas Thompson Trust
/ Mr.. Bradley and Mr. MoorS-apply
each year Il sum of money-around ST.
600 | believe, and the balance for run
ming the Institution is supposed to be ap-
piled from the income received from pa
/ tients during the year. Now this bal
ancc comes far short of meeting such an
obligation. And right here | wish to
impress upon YOU how difficult it is to
get charity eases into this institution.
+ Charity at the BrattlebOro Memorial hos
pltaI cannot apply as we would all love
/ to see it applied, because of the tremcn-
dous piles of unpaid bills. In spite of
the fact that it was probably the mind
. of the late Thomas Thompson that this
] hospital should take care primarily of
charity cases, yet we must receive first
those who are ready and willing to pay,
! or go to the wall entirely.
4 Ladies and Gentlemen of Brattleb0ro
! Don't YOU really believe that it is high
i time that the residents go down into their
! pockets Il little each year to provide for
a suffering institution that is just about
! existing? How would you like to be
without a hospital? How would you like
to he without a fire department?
! Now there appear to be three differ
cnt ways of providing a substantial in
! come from this and possibly surrounding
, communities. outside of the regular in
come of the hospital
First: Through Il committee composed
} Of some of the doctors and some of the
/ business men of the town.
Second: Through a ladies' committee
( working along the same lines.
Third Through an annual appropria-
ton by the town.
Please give this matter careful cOnsid-
Grafton and be ready and willing to be-
! come member of one of these commit
tees. Let us have in our town a hospital
] surpassed by none and pquallcd by few
within a radius of 90 miles.
! WINFRED II. LANE, NJ. d.
Oct. l. 1921.