Galway Hospital, Board of Management Minutes, 1910-1911
Includes:
Medical Staff report for two years ending 31st March 1910 stating ‘The number of patients admitted in the two years was 1214, of whom over 1,000 paid the cost of their own maintenance in the Hospital. ….the mortality in the surgical and gynecological wards will bear favourable comparison with that of other Hospitals in similar circumstances, seeing that most of the great operations in Surgery and Gynecology were undertaken. These facts the Medical Staff submit to the Board of Management as evidence that the Hospital ha, in great measure, fulfilled the purpose for which it was founded.
The conversation of the old building into a modern Hospital is necessarily expensive, and the legal difficult which is said to prevent the Board of Works from making Building Loans, to be paid in a term of year, has imposed on the Board of Management the hardship of executing permanent works out of the years income. In these circumstances the Medical staff desire to express their recognition of the readiness which the Board has shown to carry out, with the limited means at their command, any suggestion for improvement made by the staff….
The Nursing continues to be satisfactory, and the training scheme is proving of public service in supplying temporary nurses throughout the county….
The Medical Staff invite the consideration of the Board to the increased charge lately made for Paying Patients. The usefulness of the Hospital would seem to be diminished by that increase, and it is a question whether the Hospital Act Policy is consistent with a charge on any patient greater than the actual cost to the Hospital’ (18 June 1910, pp4-5).
Report from the House Surgeon stating there is ‘...inconvenience caused by want of sufficient lighting. If the Board would consider the question of increasing the supply of Electric light in the Operating Theatre, and the Gynecological operating Ward (No.5) as well as the supplying of the Surgery with Electric Light, things might be much improved…’ (21 January 1911, p6).
Details of accepted tenders for hospital supplies, such as beef, eggs, sugar, wine, candles, and soap (18 March 1911, p5).