Report of the Board of Dublin Hospitals.
5 been lately increased.
This hospital is managed by a Board of • Governors nominated by the Lord Lieutenant.
The defective registry of this institution has been superseded by one which the Governors have adopted on our recommendation.
By it the hospital statistics can be always satisfactorily shown, and can be compared with those of similar institutions.
Four hundred and fifty-three patients were treated in this hospital in the year ended the 31st March last; an average of thirty-seven beds having been constantly occupied throughout.
This hospital was established by Government in 1792, for the treatment of patients of both sexes affected with venereal diseases.
It opened with 128 beds; in the first year 42 were added, and in the following four years, 80 more, making, as the hospital records state, 250.
But, though nearly the whole were occasionally occu¬ pied, the hospital must have been over-crowded, as the wards could not properly accommodate that number.
The improve¬ ments now in progress will give an accommodation of 150 beds.
A Commission which reported on several Dublin hospitals in 1820, adverted to some abuses which had arisen, in this, and recommended that no more male patients should be admitted into it, which recommendation has been ever since acted on.
The hospital records show that from 1792 to the 31st March last, 08,000 patients have been admitted, being a yearly average of 1,04.0;
hut in the first sixteen years the annual average was 1,430.
The medical staff consists of an extern and an intern surgeon; the latter at present acting as apothecary.
The House op Industry Hospitals.
These hospitals also demanded our early attention ; we accord¬ ingly visited them several times as a Board, and by Committees specially appointed for that object, and endeavoured to ascertain, so far as the necessarily complex accounts of the institution would enable us, what portion of the Parliamentary grant was expended for the support of the hospitals apart from the ex¬ penditure on account of the lunatic asylum and dispensary; it was also necessary to ascertain how many officers and servants were likely to be required for conducting the business of the hospitals, after the 31st March last, when tbe Hardwicke Cells Lunatic Asylum, and the Talbot Dispensary, were to be broken up.
After much inquiry and consideration, we fixed on the number, and on the annual cost of each class, and on the probable yearly expense of supporting the number of beds, namely, 312, which those hospitals contain.
Whilst making these inquiries, we carefully examined this extensive institution, accompanied by the Architect of the Board of Public Works, in order to ascertain what improvements were more immediately required.
On our inspection we found that several of the defective arrange¬ ments described by the Hospital Inquiry Commissioners still con-
