It is with great satisfaction that we note the announcement
that St. Bartholomew's Hospital is instituting a " Follow-up " Department. The Department will make inquiries into the progress of cases after they have been dismissed from the hospital as cured. It will, that is, not merely recommend after-treatment, but will inquire as to whether it is being given, how it is being given, and what are its results. The blessing will be a double one. The patients will be greatly helped and encouraged, and also the interests of medical science will be furthered. In brief, we may get to know what are the results of treatments. At present half the lessons of our therapy are lost by want of observation. It is only by some lucky accidents that they are recorded beyond the primary stages. Economic. ally, also, the system of not following up patients sufficiently
on the medical side has been exceedingly stupid. We spend a great deal in putting a patient on to the road of health, and then in many cases allow our expenditure to be thrown away. As physicians, surgeons and nurses see the patient on whom they have devoted so much care depart, they often wonder whether he and those who are supposed to look after him will not throw away in a week all the anxious work that has been done.
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