The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1 of 2Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir
History
The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1 of 2
Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir
Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910
(2) The second office of the Purveyor now is to furnish, _upon
requisition_, the Hospital with utensils and clothing. But let the
Hospital be furnished at once, as has been already described in
former letters. If 2000 beds exist, let these 2000 beds have their
appropriate complement of furniture and clothing, stationary and
fixed. Whether these be originally provided by a Commissary or a
storekeeper, let those who are competent decide. The French appear
to give as much too much power to their Commissariat, who are the
real chiefs of their Hospitals, while the Medical Men are only
their slaves, as we give too little. But the Hospital being once
furnished, and a store-keeper appointed to each division to supply
wear and tear, let the Ward-Masters be responsible. Let an inventory
hang on the door of each ward of what _ought_ to be found there. Let
the Ward-Masters give up the dirty linen every night and receive the
same quantity in clean linen every morning. Let the Patient shed his
Hospital clothing like a snake when he goes out of Hospital, be
inspected by the Quarter-Master, and receive, if necessary, from
Quarter-Master's store what is requisite for his becoming a soldier
again. While the next patient succeeds to his bed and its furniture.
(3) The daily routine of the Hospital. This is now performed, or
rather _not_ performed by the Purveyor. I am really cook,
housekeeper, scavenger (I go about making the Orderlies empty huge
tubs), washer-woman, general dealer, store-keeper. The Purveyor is
supposed to do all this, but it is physically impossible. And the
filth, and the disorder, and the neglect, let those describe who saw
it when we first came....
Let us have a Hotel-keeper, a House-steward, who shall take the
daily routine in charge--the cooking, washing and cleaning us--the
superintending the housekeeping, in short, be responsible for the
cleanliness of the wards, now done by one Medical Officer, Dr.
M'Grigor, by me, or by no one--inspect the kitchens, the
wash-houses, be what a housekeeper ought to be in a private Asylum.
With the French the _chef d'administration_, the Commissary, as we
should call him, is the master of the Orderlies. And the Medical
Men just come in and prescribe, as London physicians do, and go
away again. With us the Medical Officers are everything, and have
to do everything, however heterogeneous. The French system is bad,
because, though there may be twenty things down on the Carte for
the Medical Man to choose his patient's diet from, _nominally_,
the Chef d'Administration may have provided only two, and the
Patient has no redress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account