Records relating to Hertfordshire Isolation Hospitals

HI

Records relating to Hertfordshire Isolation Hospitals

HI/1 Aldbury

HI/2 South Lodge, Baldock

HI/3 Barnet

HI/4 Bishops Stortford

HI/5 Bennetts End, Hemel Hempstead

HI/6 East Hertfordshire Joint Hospital

HI/7 Langley Smallpox Hospital

HI/8 Rosehill Hospital, Letchworth

HI/9 Royston Isolation Hospital

HI/10 Sisters Isolation Hospital, St Albans

HI/11 Tring

HI/12 Watford

1 ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS

1A Joint Hospital Board

2 FINANCIAL RECORDS

2A General financial records

3 PATIENT RECORDS

3A In-patient register

3B Miscellaneous registers

4 STAFF RECORDS

5 MEDICAL RECORDS

6 MISCELLANEOUS

6A General miscellaneous items

English

Many towns, such as Hemel Hempstead, had some form of isolation hospital from the eighteenth century, usually in the form of a pest house, where verminous or infectious people were treated. It was not, however, until the late nineteenth century, with the growing awareness of public health, that the formal treatment of infectious diseases, such as scarlet fever, typhoid and smallpox, was considered. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1868 dealt briefly with the subject, since most patients with infectious diseases found their way into the workhouse infirmaries because the voluntary hospitals could and did refuse to admit them. It was not, however, until 1875, in the first Public Health Act, that the subject was seriously addressed. This Act enabled any local authority to provide, for the use of the inhabitants of the district, hospital accommodation for the treatment of patients with infectious diseases, to be maintained, free of charge, from the rates. It also allowed for two or more authorities to combine to maintain a hospital. Although many areas of Hertfordshire responded to this it was not compulsory and many sufferers still found themselves in the workhouse infirmaries.

In 1893 the first Act relating solely to isolation hospitals was enacted. It stated that on the application of twenty-five or more rate payers the local authority was to provide an isolation hospital out of the rates. The isolation hospitals were to be run by Isolation Hospital Committees, who were corporate bodies having a perpetual succession.

Many of the local authorities found it difficult to raise the money to build these hospitals. Central government was prepared to make short term capital loans to build the hospitals. Tring Urban District Council solved the problem by borrowing the necessary capital from Lord Rothschild to set up the hospital. Maintenance was another problem. Isolation hospital committees, being run by local authorities, were not permitted to set up contributory schemes, like those run by the voluntary hospitals, or to obtain finance from the poor rate, as the Boards of Guardians did to finance the workhouse hospitals. Therefore the 1893 Act provided for the maintenance of patients in the isolation hospital. Any patient who had been in receipt of poor relief within fourteen days prior to admittance was to be supported by the Board of Guardians out of the poor rate and any other pauper patient was to be paid for by the local authority out of the general rate. Patients other than these were deemed to be personally liable and expenses had to be paid on discharge or out of the estate of the patient should he die in the hospital. The Act did not apply to London or to Scotland and Ireland, nor did it include patients suffering from veneral disease or tuberculosis. Those suffering from TB found themselves in specially appointed sanatoriums and those suffering from VD in the workhouse infirmary. It must be noted that workhouse infirmaries were not permitted to turn patients away and therefore tended to receive the patients that no other hospital would admit. Isolation hospitals were also permitted to open schools or nursing to train nurses specifically in the treatment of infectious diseases.

A further Act was enacted in 1901 reinforcing the powers of local authorities to purchase land compulsorily for use as an isolation hospital. The local authorities faced much opposition over the siting of these hospitals. Although residents of a town approved the establishment of an isolation hospital in their district, there was still fear of infection spreading and thus hospitals planned to be sited in residential areas met with a great deal of opposition. Thus there was a need for the local authority to be able to purchase the land compulsorily.

In 1936 a further Public Health Act abolished all Isolation Hospital Committees and replaced them with Joint Hospital Boards. However, the North Hertfordshire Joint Hospital Board was formed in 1932 from the Hitchin Hospital Committee possibly under the terms of the Local Government Act 1929 which allowed in some cases for ad hoc boards to be created. Each Board had then to apply for an order from the Secretary of State ratifying its appointment. All isolation hospital committees were dissolved by 1938 and joint hospital boards took their place.

The 1936 Public Health Act also stated that local authorities had to provide hospital accommodation for infectious diseases; up until then it had been recommended but not insisted upon.

In many cases several local authorities joined together to run an isolation hospital, for example, the Letchworth and Hitchin Isolation Hospital was run by Hitchin UDC and RDC and Letchworth UDC for the benefit of citizens in the surrounding area. Local authorities could hire out their services for a fee to areas not covered by their hospital.

Many of the isolation hospitals had as few as 20 beds and thus in 1948 when the National Health Service was created many of the isolation hospitals were closed as they were not economically viable units. Others, however, such as the Letchworth and Hitchin and the East Herts Hospitals, did remain open and were used as hospitals for the chronically ill and for other specialist treatment that could be performed by a smaller unit.