LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
HOSPITALS AND PAUPERS.
[TO THE EDITOR OP TEE "SPECTATOR:] Sia,—The article on hospitals in your issue of July 7th must have appealed strongly to all who have at heart the welfare of these institutions. There is, however, another side of the question which I hoped would have been pointed out by some abler pen than mine in the following number of the Spectator. The need of trained nursing and of surgical assistance comes to people in all classes of life. The very rich can afford to obtain the first in private homes for seven or nine guineas a week, and in no better way can they invest their money than by paying large fees to eminent surgeons. Both these boons are supplied to the poor by the benevolence of the public and the generosity of the medical profession. Between the two lie a large class able, and probably willing, to pay the actual cost of nursing and the ordinary fees of a doctor. Having hardly any opportunity of doing either, almost necessarily they apply in their time of need for admission into one of the great hospitals, and the officers, aware of the difficulty, must naturally be reluctant to refuse these patients. Thus charitable funds are misapplied and medical men are despoiled. What we want in London is a number of small hospitals where patients would pay moderate fees, and possibly have the advantage of being treated by their own doctors.—I am,
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