LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
SPLENDOURS AND MISERIES OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES : SICKNESS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In the first of the interesting articles contributed by Miss Gertrude Kingston upon the above, in your issue of April 18th, she says : I know of no hospital that will admit a householder who can keep a servant or two without con- siderably bigger fees than he can afford to pay. A private Nursing Home is still more prohibitive." It may be interesting to your readers to know that in Edinburgh we have a Home, " the Queen Mary," which was started and run for the express purpose of giving nursing and attendance to middle-class patients.
Prior to 1013 a few people in Edinburgh had had their atten- tion drawn to this matter, and in that year a public subscrip- tion was started which resulted in a fund of £13,368 being raised. With this sum, a block of three houses in a quiet street was purchased, adapted and furnished at a cost of £18,106. Since then an additional house has been acquired and equipped at a cost of about £3,000, and the whole original debt and the cost of the last named house has been paid off, and the Home now stands free of all debt.
All the Home offered was accommodation, food, nursing and attendance. There was no surgeon or physician in charge. Any patient who came did so under the care of his own doctor or surgeon, and if the former considered an operation were neces- sary, the patient and he could select a surgeon whose charges would come within the range of the patient's ability to pay.
Before the War our charges were : For a bed in a ward of eight beds, one guinea a week ; for a bed in a room of three beds, two guineas ; for a private room, three guineas. During the War our prices were gradually raised to two guineas, four guineas, and £5 10s., respectively, at which they now stand.
The Home, which contains fifty beds, is practically always full, and I am sure it is meeting a much felt want. Possibly your readers may be aware that a Commission under Lord McKenzie has been sitting in Scotland to investigate the posi- tion of Infirmaries and other Nursing Institutions, and I have sent particulars of our Home to the Secretary.
I do not know whether it would be feasible, but the great difficulty in starting such a Home as ours is the initial expense, and my idea is that if the State could be induced to advance the initial expense for the starting of similar Institutions, on the same basis as they advance loans to Local Authorities— that is, repayable by interest and sinking fund over a period of years, of course, with a guarantee from people of position as to repayment—I am sure it would go far to relieve the con- gestion of public hospitals, and would meet a real want of " the Man in the Black Coat with the White Scams."—I am, Sir, &c.,
Wells, Mnvick. ROBERT USHER. it is a pleasure to publish Sir Robert Usher's account of this admirable scheme. It supplies a precise and satisfying remedy for one of the grievances described by Miss Kingston. To obtain publicity for such remedies was our purpose in printing her lively articles.—En. Spectator.]
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