Hospital's 'fame' brings pressure
BY the mid-1930s, the fame of one of Belfast's greatest institutions, the Royal Victoria Hospital, was bringing its own set of problems for its board of management, reported the News Letter this week in 1935.
The day following a board meeting the News Letter warned: "The institution's fame has extended to every corner of the Province, and in consequence patients seeking its beneficent services not only from the city of Belfast and district but from virtually every part of Ulster.
"The general public seem to take the financial stability of the hospital for granted, assuming that its magnificent work will never be allowed to suffer from lack of funds, and that as its expenses increase so will subscriptions to its funds. That comfortable assumption is not fully justified."
The meeting was addressed by Mr Victor F Clarendon, the honorary treasurer of the hospital, who gave a detailed account of the Royal's financial position during which he warned that the future was "rather uncertain" and that he saw "nothing but increased responsibility and increased expenses".
Despite these concerns the Royal's management board approved proposals to inaugurate a pension fund for nurses, to provide a nurses' home, and to proceed immediately with the construction of a "pay patients' pavilion" in accordance with the provisions of the bequest which had been left to the hospital by the late Mr Henry Musgrave.
During his financial submission to the board, Mr Clarendon had told how the total disbursements of the Royal amounted to 61,056, which had "increased their debit balance at the bank".
He said: "That is a situation which we do not like but the extra expenditure is justified."
He explained that "workpeople's" subscriptions to the hospital totalled 23,123 which, he said was a "really magnificent figure".
Mr Clarendon remarked: "It is almost the biggest on record and is an increase of 3,634 on last year. These subscriptions indicate the improvement in employment and also the tremendous amount of work done by Miss Maxwell and her staff, who has added no fewer than 140 new firms as weekly subscribers."
Reflecting on the hospital's expenditure for 1934 Mr Clarendon said that the figure stood at 61,000 and was the highest on record for the Royal and some 5,000 more than 1933.
Mr Clarendon said: "This record expenditure has been largely due to non-recurring items of additional expenditure, such as the rewiring of the wards, but there were other additions, such as an increase in fuel and light of 500 and an increase for surgery and dispensing."
Mr Clarendon continued that the future for the Royal Victoria Hospital was "rather uncertain".
He said: "I see nothing but increased responsibility and increased expenses. The new nurses' home is bound to be a serious item of expense, but the paying patients' block will, I hope, become self-supporting, though, of course, money has to be spent in building and equipping it."
He added: "The new nurses' superannuation scheme is going to cost a capital expenditure of 2,000 immediately and 1,000 for the next 40 years.
"The number of intern patients, 6,905, is the highest figure I can find. The waiting list is still terrible thing. Between 1,000 and 1,200 people, many of them suffering, are continually waiting for beds. The only way to relieve this is the provision of more beds and, as I have had already said, I see nothing but increased expenditure ahead."
At the conclusion of the financial statement, Lieutenant-Colonel A B Mitchell, FRCS, MP, moved a resolution adopting the report and financial statement, approving the inauguration of a pension fund for nurses, the provision of a nurses' home and approving the decision of the board to proceed with construction of a pay patients' pavilion.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell said: "We are entering on a year of extraordinary progress. A great institution like the Royal Victoria Hospital has a very important place in the administrative system of Northern Ireland and we cannot stand still."
He went on to refer to the pension scheme for nurses. He remarked: "The scheme recommended will be a non-contributory one and the hospital's contribution will be 1,000 a year, with the initial payment of 2,000 to set the scheme on a sound basis.
"At the end of forty years the annual contribution of the hospital will be reduced to 400. For that we will be able to give every nurse, when she reached the retiring age, a sum of 78 a year.
"In the event of a nurse leaving after ten years' service to a hospital across the channel, the scheme provides that a sum of money will be paid which will enable her to take her place in the contributory pension scheme."
Concluding his comments on the pension scheme Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell said: "This scheme makes excellent provision for those who spend the best years of their life in the service of the hospital. We do not wish to see any of them at the end of their service turned out into the world without provision."
The News Letter, in its editorial which commented on the annual meeting of the board of management, praised the work of the working class in raising funds for the hospital.
The paper remarked: "If every section of the community did as well for the hospital as the working classes, the committee of management would be relieved of financial anxieties and accommodation could be extended in such a degree that there would be few names on the waiting list.
"Subscriptions from this source, amounting to 26,123, and not far short of one half the total income, represent a magnificent effort."
Echoing Lieut-Colonel Mitchell's view that the Royal Victoria Hospital could not stand still the News Letter declared: "That work at the Royal Victoria is increasing at so rapid a pace that it cannot afford to relax its efforts and in doing so it gives a lead which it may be hoped other sections of the community will follow.
"It is difficult, perhaps, to grasp the full significance in terms of suffering relieved of the statement that the total admissions numbered 6,612. . .but everyone can appreciate how heavy the cost to the ratepayers would be if the hospital were not supported by voluntary contributions and if its medical and surgical services had to be paid for.
"The hospital has strong claims on the people of Belfast and every district in Ulster, and, though times are difficult, we cannot believe that those claims will be left unsatisfied."
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Wednesday 15 February 2012
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