THE
HISTORY OF THE LONDON HOMOEOPATHIC HOSPITAL
Presented by Peter Morrell & Sylvain Cazalet
THE OUT-PATIENT DEPARTMENT
The Out-Patient Department.
12,522 Individual Out-patients made 59,734 Attendances last year.
The new and enlarged Out-patient Department,
which comprises the whole of the basement, is well worth a visit. The unit consists of a
central hall, a registration office, examination and consulting rooms, casualty room, and
theatre for minor operations, It is lofty, and well lighted at every point, and affords
comfortable seating accommodation for 400 patients per day, the seats being made to the
Hospital special design, with a curve and with a slope to fit the body and back of the
sitter. The receiving hall is surrounded by seven consulting rooms for the reception and
treatment of patients, including dental cases; throat, nose and ear cases, and departments
for diseases of women, electricity, and X-rays, etc.
AN OUT-PATIENT CONSULTING ROOM.
(Diseases of Women.) An Average of 50 Patients are seen in an afternoon.
There is also an out-patient operating theatre, but only operations of a
minor character are carried out here. Tonsils and adenoids, the growths in the throat and
nose that children are particularly susceptible to, show an overwhelming majority. A
multitude of such cases are sent to the institution as the result of the recently-organised
medical inspection of school children. Other characteristic operations are for flat foot,
cut tendons, injury to fingers, mastoid abscess, amputation of thumb, abscess of arm, cyst
of cheek.
THE CASUALTY DEPARTMENT.
2,335 Casualties were dealt with in this Department last year.
All these, of course, are performed under anćsthetics, and in a little
room adjoining there are beds for the patient’s to lie on while they are coming to. A
casualty dressing room completes the department and provides for the immediate treatment of
major and minor casualties, both surgical and medical. Here patients suffering from every
variety of disease and affliction assemble daily and are prescribed for by the visiting
physicians and surgeons in consulting rooms specially designed and fitted for out-patient
work. This department is second to none in its organisation, the best models having been
studied in its arrangement. Another feature of the out-patient department is the ingenious
and carefully worked – out system of registration of patients, by which every man, woman or
child is able to present to the doctor a record showing the previous treatment of the case,
details of the diagnosis, symptoms, and any remarks that may be relevant. The advantage is
obvious.
TEA BAR FOR OUT-PATIENTS
The arrangements in this department also include a tea bar, which has
proved a great boon to patients awaiting their turn for medical attendance. The bar is not
worked with any idea of making a profit, but the receipts at the end of the year usually
show a pound or two over the expenditure. Any sum thus made is devoted to giving assistance
to destitute patients.
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