A Hospital Inquiry - The decision of the British Hospitals
Association to appoint a committee to inquire into the hospital system is amply warranted by the changing conditions in the hospital world. Since the Poor Law was abolished and its hospitals 'came under the Public Assistance Com- mittees, their modernization and expansion have made great strides ; and the relation between them and the voluntary hospitals needs to be re-surveyed, if overlapping and undesirable rivalries are to be avoided. Another very important topic for inquiry is the provision for paying patients. Now that the hospitals employ almoners, who assess for contributions all but the poorest, there is a strong demand for extending the system upwards so as to bring in on paying terms practically the whole middle-class population. This would hit many private nursing-homes. But a narrowing of their sphere seems inevitable in any case.
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