Known as the 'Gateways to Death', hospitals in the early nineteenth century were hardly an improvement on being nursed at home. Instruments used on one person's wounds were used to the next patient, adn wards, full of open sores and fevers, were a hotbed of infection.
During the Victorian period there was a massive expansion in the number of hospitals in Britain and they were increasingly the focus of health care and medical education. Yet despite the growing role of hospitals, there were wide variations in the quality of medical services available.
They ranged from celebrated specialist hospitals served by famous surgeons to appalling workhouse infirmaries where the patients were looked after by untrained pauper nurses.
This book describes the different types of hospital and the changes that took place in the Victorian era. During this period there were considerable advances in surgery and nursing that helped bring the hospital into the modern age.
Contents:
Introduction
Voluntary hospitals
Hospitals and medical science
Tre revolution in nursing
Specialist and cottage hospitals
Poor Law infirmaries
Hospitals for infectious diseases
Asylums
Convalescent hospitals
Military and Naval hospitals
Victorian hospitals today
Further reading
Places to visit
Index
