On This Day, 27 May 1916

Birmingham Daily Post

Saturday 27 May 1916

BIRMINGHAM SKIN.

PROPOSED ESTABLISHMENT OF A RADIUM INSTITUTE.

In the thirty-fifth annual report of the Birmingham and Midland Skin Hospital, which will be presented at the annual meeting of governors next Tuesday, it is stated that the increase in the number of in–patients was 29, and in the number of out–patients 394, making the total of patients treated 6,788. This increase has necessarily occasioned a great amount of extra work by the honorary surgeons, further intensified by the inability – by reason of the war – to relieve the strain by obtaining the help of qualified clinical assistants. The ordinary income of the past year was £3,435, as compared with £3,227 income of the previous year – an increase of £208, mainly due to the majority of patients of the working class dwelling in army munitions areas being in receipt of higher wages and so better able to pay for the benefits they receive. On the other hand, the events which have influenced greater income have also brought about greater annual expenditure, by the general rise in price, not only of every-day commodities, but also to a serious extent in surgical and medical requisites of all kinds and scientific apparatus indispensable to the special work of the hospital, a combination of causes occasioning an increase in expenditure over income of £208. The increase in expenditure over that of 1914 is £660.
An appeal is made for donations and subscriptions to the radium fund, which is in urgent need of replenishment, and it is recorded that the electrical and bacteriological departments have now arrived at a stage where they could together exist as an independent unit, and with extended accommodation, additional radium, and under the title of the “Birmingham and Midland Radium Institute,” they might confidently expect a much wider sphere of usefulness than is possible so long as they confine their attention to skin diseases only. It has been increasingly evident during the last twelve months that the present quarters are altogether too confined. This matter was given much consideration in July, 1914, but the outbreak of hostilities cut short the deliberations, and although the time is not appropriate the need is not less urgent.