(10.) The question of Hospital floors will be fully discussed farther on. An Orderly should be trained to be the _frotteur_ to each ward. He should also be the porter to fetch and carry every thing to and from the ward. [Sidenote: (11.) Comparison of Cost of Nursing with larger and smaller Wards.] (11.) The plan of Netley, with its wards for 9 sick, is by far the costliest for administration, as the following facts will prove: I. It is proposed to provide the Hospital with Orderlies and Nurses to conduct the nursing in wards of 9 sick, as mentioned. II. On sanitary grounds wards may safely be large enough to accommodate 25 to 30 sick. We may therefore choose the larger wards, being guided only by the cost of the nursing. III. A ward of 9 sick would require 1 day and 1 night Orderly, and a-third of a Nurse (that is, a Nurse could superintend three such wards.) A ward of 30 sick would require 2 day and 1 night Orderlies and 1 Nurse = 4 persons in all. Or if two such wards were on one floor, 1 Nurse could serve both. IV. We cannot count the cost of Orderlies and Nurses, including lodging, rations, wages, at less than £50 a year, which when capitalized at 3 per cent. (33 years’ purchase), would amount to £1,650 for each. V. A ward of 9 sick would cost in nursing £1,650 × 2⅓ = £3,850, or £427 15_s._ 6_d._ per bed. VI. A ward of 30 sick would cost for nursing, in perpetuity, £1,650 × 4 = £6,600 = £220 per bed. [One Nurse to each ward is here allowed.] VII. The cost of the two plans relatively for a Hospital of 1,000 sick would stand thus: Wards with 9 beds = £427,775 Wards with 30 beds = 220,000 --------- Capitalized difference of cost in } £207,775 favour of large wards } Netley has cost already Land = £30,000 Works 89,000 --------- £119,000 It hence appears that, if works and site were both sacrificed, and fresh land purchased, and wards for 30 sick built on it, the country would actually save the difference between the two sums of = £88,775. Suppose the sanitary requirement of 25 sick to a ward, which is the best number, be combined with the greatest economy of administration, the cost would stand thus: For each ward of 25 sick, 3 Orderlies, at £1,650 = £4,950 If two such are built in line, close to each other, with the Nurse’s room between them, one Nurse could superintend both wards, or half a Nurse to a ward. The cost would be for the ward 825 ------- 5,775