Medical Malpractice

What were hospitals during the victorian times like?

Aparently the word hospital came from the word hospitality but thats as far as i have gotten.... what were the hospitals like?

Public Comments

1. During this time hospitals were starting to pop up all over the place even though home visit doctors were still very popular. The victorian era hospitals were not as specialized or sterilized like the hospitals we have today and no where near as big. The number of staff was much smaller but as normal the number of patients always outnumbered staff but even more so during this time. If you want more information I found a cool website that lets you in on life during the Victorian era when it comes to health, sex, language, and way of life in general. I hope this helps. http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/guide19/part06.html check it out, I hope this helps!
2. "Victorian times" covers almost 100 years. There were great improvements in hospitals from the beginning of Victoria's reign until she died. In the earlier years, the importance of sanitation, the spread of disease through germs etc, was not understood and became better know and used as time went by as did the invention and use of anaesthetics.
3. The early part of the period, hospitals, rather than being seen as "places of healing" were more often viewed as "gateways of death". A visitor to such an establishment would see overcrowded wards, surgery being performed without anesthesia and his having placed himself at risk of catching a deadly infection or virus. The wealthy were able to pay a doctor to attend them at home, while the poor had no choice but to go to a charitable hospital or workhouse infirmary. At that time a hospital was either a charity or run by local authorities and there were only a handful of such facilities in all of England. Before 1850, there was a high potential for the spreading of disease within the hospital environment itself. It was believed that foul air, or miasma, caused infection. It wasn't until the middle of the century that the idea was challenged blaming the spreading of disease on germs. Hospitals were designed with small rooms off a main corridor as it was thought that the smaller wards would help prevent the spread of disease and infection. This, however, did little in the prevention as these rooms would also be overcrowded with patients due to the lack of space. Few surgeries were performed as success rate was extremely low and prior to anesthesia extremely painful. Advances started to be made in the field when Joseph Lister discovered "antisepsis" to prevent wounds and incisions from becoming infected. The Medical Act of 1858 made a group called the General Medical Council responsible for establishing a register of qualified doctors. Prior to that time, they were "elected" by a commission with no control or defined standard of qualification. Several different types of hospitals evolved out of need as voluntary hospitals did not treat all diseases or the mentally ill. These hospitals consisted of the Voluntary hospitals, Specialist and cottage hospitals, Poor Law infirmaries, Hospitals for Infectious Diseases and Asylums for the mentally ill.