Annual report : 1945 / Royal Surrey County Hospital.

Royal Surrey County Hospital.

Date:: 1945

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report : 1945 / Royal Surrey County Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

14/78 (page 12)

inadequate accommodation for serving meals and washing up, have somewhat hindered the development of schemes which the Catering Sub-Committee have had under consideration for further improve¬ ments. DINING ROOM EXTENSIONS. Plans prepared for the Committee by the well-known hospital architect, Mr. L. Pearson, for extensions to the staff dining room and the pantries, were deferred by the Ministry of Health, but a modified scheme has since been sanctioned for improvements to the pantries only, which will enable a dish-washing machine and other equipment to be installed and will greatly facilitate the serving of meals. NURSES’ CHAPEL. A prefabricated type of building has been completed at a cost of £525, the whole of which, together with the cost of some of the furnishing, has been raised by the efforts of the Nursing Staff. Gifts of furniture have been received from many friends and it is hoped that services will be held in the Chapel in the near future. FINANCE. During the past year, the average cost per patient per week has risen to £5. 5s.2d., compared with £3. ls.9d. in 1938. Receipts from voluntary sources showed an appreciable increase but were quite insufficient to balance the heavy increase in expenditure, most of which, though approved by, was completely outside the Committee’s control. To maintain the Hospital services at full efficiency, all available securities amounting to £14,300 had to be sold, and there still remains, as the accounts show, a deficit of £15,043. The Committee are most grateful to Messrs. Lloyds Bank for their generous help in enabling them to tide over the most serious financial crisis the Hospital has ever had to face. APPEAL. Towards the end of the year, an appeal for funds was launched which brought in £180 in annual subscriptions and £1,319 in donations. The uncertainty of the future of Voluntary Hospitals caused by the many uncontradicted Press reports of the Govern¬ ment’s intention to take them over compulsorily was the undoubted cause of the poor response, many potential subscribers withholding their support until the position was clarified.