THE THAMES HOSPITAL.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4504, 12 June 1883, Page 2

THE THAMES HOSPITAL.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sib —That Hospitals in their management need overhauling pretty freely, reports of public journals, lately, concernin? such institutions shew plainly enough. Very many of them are mere augean stables that require much cleansing and superior management ere they become what they ought to be as really public institutions, and so with our Thames Hospital. At the present juncture perhaps the following sketch will not be inapproV priate :—ln travelling through the wilderness of this world it became my - lot to be located for a few years in a small town not a vast distance from Melbourne. The people of the town were singular specimens of the et hoc genus omne. Their whole delight was to form themselves into little knots, and rings, and sects, thinking about and of course prosecuting that and that alone which would be for the interest of each, his little party and not caring a twopenny piece what injury their proceedings might cause their neighbors in general. It was not much to be won- .. dered at that the people displayed such singular characteristics, for they were cooped up in a corner, and though surrounded by a vast extent of good country. they were almost entirely cut ©9H from communication with the people of the couulry for want of roads and bridges. Thousand upon thousand of pounds had been voted by the Govern*: . Tienl to make roads aud bridges, but the j money generally found its way into the pockets of the roads cliqueites, and their hangers-on, so there was little real work : to shew for the money,,and even horses in attempting a passage, got up to their middles in mud and slush. There had.DQen „ a talk of a branch railway to connect the town with the upper country, for about a generation, but it was only a talk, for the majority of the worthies of the town could do nothing else but talk about big matters that would most certainly benefit the whole population, seeing that the miserable little knots "amongst them, whose only object was money-making, were so wholly absorbed in this despicable practice that they could not comprehend a big affair for the benefit of the whole, and therefore made no effort to obtain the boon. The Government of course looked on and laughed and spent the money elsewhere for railways that woulj benefit their own immediate friends and supporters, and left this town out in the cold until at last the population became somewhat after the fashion of the celebrated Kilkenny Cat affair, they fought with one another with, such vigor that there was scarcely a tail left, but the tail still had life in it and kept wagging away determined to gain the mastery in spite of all opposed to it; well, in this noted town of knots and sects and cliques of course there was a hospital clique who managed matters in connection with that institution to suit their own little purposes, never thinking for a moment of the real object of such a. noble institution. For several years there had been constant rows about the management of its internal affairs, and not without abundant cause. The unfeeling and cruel conduct of the surgeon to the sick was freely talked about by many who had been inmates therein, and although this man had to be elected year by year by packing a committee, some of whom, in a monetary point of view, dare not; vote against him, he managed to, secure ' . bis re-election. Nearly all the population were, however, agreed on one| point, and was that his principal hobby—if not his that only one—was to make as much, money as he could, no matter how, and so he suited the, cliques of this noted town to a tee. and they could say nothing against him. but looked over bis utter unfitness for his position, and let him continue because it suited their purpose as well as his own. Bntwith such a surgeon, what a Hospital! Th* dispenser put in position by the surgeon was the - very essence of politeness and gentlemanly conduct; the wardsmen and servants gen-' - erally vied with each other who should perform bis duties most assiduously, after the prison style. The Hospital was the most cleanly place to be found, in the town, or so it was said. In a word, it was said, the whole thing was perfection itself, but somehow people would not believe .it, and thought there should be a change and that a resident surgeon should take charge of the institntion—a kindly mtn—and devote his whole time; to its affairs, getting rid of the dispenser, and by economising in many other ways this plan was said by some would be the cheapest and best in the long ran. How they settled the matter deponent sayeth not, for he knows not, 1 having business in another part of tn» world ere the thing was settled. Now it occurs to the writer that matters are very ■ much in the same plight at the Thames* And the sooner there is a change for the better in the management of the Thames Hospital, the better the people at a whole, will like it, and subscribe to the institu> tion liberally. So mote it be.—l am, &c, ' - . •?. ■ '" \ -■'■;- ." .-. Zaccmtctb.