GUY'S HOSPITAL AGAIN.
THE case of presumptive manslaughter in Guy's Hospital seems likely to be actively used for the purpose of mis- leading the public as to the recent controversies affecting that
institution. Of course, we have no intention of prejudging the trial of the nurse who has been, so far as the public can judge, most properly committed for manslaughter ; but the attempt made to discredit the present system of nursing, and not likely to be successful. The fact is, that neither in the case of the unfortunate woman whose death is said to have been either caused or hastened by the improper administration of a bath, nor in the case of the child who died after tracheotomy, in consequence, as it is held, of unskilled nursing, was the new system to blame. The Sisters of both the wards in which these misfortunes happened are well known to be Sisters not appointed by the new Matron, but who were there before she came; and what- ever fault there is in either case, so far as it is due to the negli- gence of the superiors at all,—and on this we do not presume to offer an opinion,—is due to the negligence of superiors to whom the medical staff wish to restore the administration of the hospital, and not of those who have been placed there as a result of the recent changes.
Dr. Habershon, however, attempts, rather unwisely, we think, to excite the prejudice of the public against the new Sisters, on the ground that "they go to prayers." So far as we can ascertain, these prayers, which are short and simple, and involve no neglect of the patients, since the night-nurses are still in attendance while the short morning prayer is going on, are nothing more than the devotions which begin the day for all sincere Christians who like to realise their religious responsibility for the duty before them; and they are totally devoid of any ostentatious or pharisaic prolixity. There is no pretence for the assertion that any single patient has been neglected for these short religious services, and we regret to see the effort made in some of our contem- poraries to sneer at these modest devotions, as if hospital nurses would be the better for a loss of piety.
We fear that cases where there has been a certain failure of accurate medical nursing have not been so uncommon in any of our great hospitals, as every one would like them to be. What is new just now in Guy's is the desire to turn these
mistakes to account for the depreciation of a great practical reform. Unfortunately for that purpose, though in both the cases now selected for consideration the immediate nurse was one of no long standing, it was under one of the old staff that the fault occurred, and there is nothing at all to show that the immediate nurse would have been one of older standing or longer experience or better quality, if no change had ever been introduced. What is, however, extremely probable is this,— that if no change whatever had been introduced, there would have been many faults committed in the ordinary course of things such as have been lately brought to light, but that they would have attracted much less notice. it is only in cases either of very high culpability, or of very heated partisan feeling, that the medical staff of a great hospital are at all willing to make much of a nurse's errors ; for it would only be too easy to frighten away the whole staff of nurses, if every error which ends fatally is to be dealt with as the subject of a charge of manslaughter. We do not mean that it was not quite right to make that charge in the present case. On the contrary, we heartily approve the finding of the inquest. But we do doubt very seriously whether, right or wrong, the inquest would not have ended in some open verdict, had not controversial passion materially sharpened the indignation of the medical officers against any offences which seemed likely to dis- credit the character of the recent changes. That there has been any wish or disposition on the part of the new manage- ment to interfere with the proper medical authority of the staff at Guy's, we do not believe ; nor do the Governors who have inquired into the recent dispute appear to believe this in the least. On the contrary, the intention of the new system has been to carry out the doctors' orders more efficiently than before; and, on the whole, this has been achieved, in spite of the difficulties interposed by the recent bitter misunderstanding and the unappeasable wrath of many of the medical staff, who, if we may judge by the tone of Dr. Haber- shon's letter, will be satisfied with nothing short of the sacri- fice of a very able and conscientious matron.
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