UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—H.R.H. Prince Henry is to preside at a Dinner on Tuesday, November 20th next, at the Savoy Hotel, in order to inaugurate a special appeal for funds to maintain the new hospital buildings, which represent a part of the recent munifi- cent gift of the Rockefeller Foundation of the United States, and are to serve a vast scheme for the improvement of medical education in London, and incidentally throughout the British Empire.
The success of our appeal must largely depend on our ability to convince the British public of our just claims to their generosity, and it has been suggested to me, as President of he Hospital, that I might write and ask you for assistance in this direction through the influential columns of the Spectator. It is apparently not at all clear to the public mind why this Hospital, which has recently received the sum of £885,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation, should now be appealing for further funds, and I am asking your help to remove a popular misconception of the purposes of the Rockefeller Gift, and to furnish an explanation of the financial responsi- bilities in which the Hospital is involved by its acceptance. The facts are as follows :- (a) The benefaction is given for the purpose of establishing in London a medical educational centre complete with
every facility for clinical investigation and researcho and of such standing and prestige as will secure the circulation of new methods and ideas throughout the British Empire.
(b) The above scheme involves considerable extensions of the Hospital to provide the necessary additional facilities for clinical teaching and research work.
(c) The gift makes provision for building and equipping these extensions, but no part of it may be used to meet the increased cost of maintaining them, which is estimated at 120,000 per annum over and above the existing expenditure.
The Hospital will therefore have to raise an additional 120,000 per annum, or a capital sum yielding this annual income, to meet the increased charges which will be imposed on its finances.
(e) The Rockefeller Foundation, in limiting their gift to purely educational purposes, very reasonably took the view that the extensions of the Hospital, while primarily: necessary for educational purposes, will incidentally provide additional accommodation and improved treatment for the sick poor, and that the British public, should therefore provide the funds to maintain them.
It would be extremely kind of you if you would help us in giving publicity to the above facts in the columns of the Spectator, which we realize is a most valuable medium for approaching the class of people who are most likely to appreciate the full meaning of the Rockefeller Gift, and respond to the friendly challenge in beneficence which it conveys to the British public.—I am, Sir, &c.,
BEDFORD.
(President of University College Hospital.)
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