8 HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION. 



faces Macquarie-street. Tlie south wing is an excellent, substan- 

 tial hospital pavilion, but unfavourably situated, in its close 

 proximity to the high wall which separates the grounds of the 

 Mint from those of the Infirmary ; the two floors are isolated by 

 means of an oxitside detached staircase, and the bath-rooms, lava- 

 tories, &c., are well arranged. The ground in front of this build- 

 ing and opposite the back of the main front building is often 

 swampy and unwholesome, but this latter point could easily be 

 rectified. A very large average of erysipelas occurs in this 

 wing. The main front building is very old, very much out of 

 repair, and undoubtedly very unhealthy. The latter characteristic 

 has I fear caused the loss of many valuable lives, and cannot, in 

 my opinion, be got rid of without taking down the building and 

 exposing the foundation soil to the wind and sun. 



The rules of the Infirmary are good, and it is most desirable 

 they should be strictly carried out. It is evident from the nature 

 of those regulating the admission and discharge of patients that 

 the institution is devoted to the treatment of serious disease and 

 accidents. Moreover, no patient can remain for more than eight 

 weeks, unless it is certified at a consultation of the honorary 

 physicians and surgeons that the disease demands longer treat- 

 ment in an institution of this character. 



Until last March this rule had, from various reasons, remained 

 a dead letter, and an aA^erage of from fifty to eighty beds have 

 always been occupied by patients to whom justice could have 

 been done in a hospital of a far less expensive character. In 

 March it was found possible to act upon this rule, and fifty patients 

 were discharged. Monthly consultations of the staff" are now 

 held, at which all patients whose residence in the institution has 

 exceeded eight weeks are examined, and such only are retained 

 as appear to require the special facilities of treatment afforded by 

 the institution. 



The result of carrying out this rule has had a ver}'- marked 

 effect upon the accommodation available for the daily admission 

 of patients, as we shall find hereafter. 



Thinking it possible that the discharge of so inany cases at one 

 time from a hospital might have been attended with possible 

 suffering and hardship, I made inquires into the question, and 

 ascertained from the Manager of the Infirmary that no complaints 

 of any kind had come to his knowledge, but that one of the 

 patients so dischargd had been re-admitted. Prom the Secretary 

 of the Asylum Board I learned that the average admissions for 

 the three weeks following the consultation alluded to, at which 

 fifty patients were discharged, had only been very slightly ex- 

 ceeded, perhaps by two or three. 



On this occasion, therefore, nearly fifty patients who had occu- 

 pied beds, some of them for many months, were able to find homes 



