Address to the governors & subscribers of the Charing Cross Hospital, on some extraordinary proceedings that have lately taken place at that institution, and on the management of the Hospital in general / by T.J. Pettigrew.

Pettigrew, Thomas Joseph, 1791-1865.

Date:: 1836

Credit: Address to the governors & subscribers of the Charing Cross Hospital, on some extraordinary proceedings that have lately taken place at that institution, and on the management of the Hospital in general / by T.J. Pettigrew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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$have found it necessary to give the same order more than once, and I had an instance of an omnibus-driver (whose name I forget), who had a fracture of the thigh, kept, unnecessarily kept, in his bed at least ten days longer than he might have been, from the inability to obtain crutches for him. When a man has been obliged to be confined to one position for seven or eight weeks, it is a dreadful cruelty to retain him one day beyond the time absolutely necessary for his recovery. Another man being taller than ordinary, a man with a fracture of the neck of the thigh bone, was Unable for many days to obtain the proper-sized crutches, and he ventured to use a shorter pair than were adapted to his height. He fell, and was in consequence kept to his bed for some days from the shock he had sustained. I have heard of a case of Mr. Howship, a child with a fractured thigh being dismissed the Hospital with a very crooked limb from the want of splints. The want of these, of bandages, &c, has been truly distressing—every fracture that has to be adjusted is delayed by the necessity of making the proper pads, &c, at the time. I was called upon only a few days ago to tap a patient of Dr. Shearman's labouring under ovarian dropsy; and, upon asking for a flannel roller, there was not such a thing in the Hospital! There are nothing but ordinary rollers, and those scanty in num- ber—no eighteen-tailed bandage—no complicated bandages re- quired for particular injuries ; and will it be believed that to this day there is not a proper operating table ! The operations are obliged to be performed upon a table by far too broad for the purpose, and one which is used at the lectures. There are no pullies for the reduction of dislocations, nor a bolt even placed for the use of them. I might enumerate many other things, but I am sure these are sufficient to show that the management of the Hospital, under the guidance of the Director, has been very defective, and that the accidents liable to occur are very ill pro- provided for. All this results from a parsimony that is quite unnecessary, not to say injudicious; for the funds are by the Report of the Committee to the last General Meeting declared to be adequate, and the Hospital is not in debt. It is free from debt and incumbrance of any kind. Yet, if a patient is to be visited after dark, not a candle is to be had to examine him, but at the expense of the sister of the ward, the lights of the Hospital being restricted to the jets of gas in the apartments. These are all matters for the Director's attention. It has been in vain to apply to him, and the Special Committee designate them frivolous; the Governors at large will, I flatter myself, entertain a different opinion, else farewell to the objects of these Charitable Institutions. The complaints I have urged on this head and a variety of others have brought down upon me the animosity of the$