Temporary Hospital Totally Inadequate

The small, wooden fever hospital soon became totally inadequate for the demands of the time. The fever hospital had been built on common land leased off the Feoffees. The Feoffees were a self-appointed body given official recognition to such activities in dealing with land. They also had a history of tending to the sick as far back as the sixteenth century and they paid for the erection of huts to isolate the smallpox plague. The huts were erected on Rotherham’s moor (Moorgate, as we know it today). The only steps open to them now was to erect an iron structure as a second temporary building on the present site on a piece of common land across the road from Badsley Moor Lane Farm the farm that the hospital would be late built on. The second building was erected in 1892 with no cost to patients as it was felt this was the only way to protect the community, however records show that sometimes some patients did pay. The iron structured building proved to be invaluable towards the treatment of patients. The hospital itself quickly proved to be unsatisfactory in helping to prevent epidemics occurring in the town. At the time unemployment in the area was high and many working class families lived in overcrowded and run down houses. Families did not receive any unemployment benefit so they were often reluctant to go into hospital for long periods of time. Many patients who came into the hospital needed to be treated for ringworm, lice and scabies as well as their infectious complaint. At the time the only way to deal with heads full of lice, was to cut the hair as short as possible and apply the necessary treatment. If parents objected, as some of them did in the cases of their teenage daughters, parents were threatened that the child would be sent home. With this threat, parents invariably consented to the hair being cut. Each person in the hospital was provided with their own comb and it was frequently sterilised. The dedicated working staff worked long hours under the instruction of Dr. Robinson who continued to strive for a more suitable and permanent fever hospital.

In A typical horse drawn ambulance of the time 1892 on a slightly misty early morning, excitement was aroused by the sound of horse hooves. Patients who were well enough joined the nursing staff at the hospital windows to see their first ambulance. Slowly through the mist, along an uneven muddy road came the most modern built, horse drawn ambulance of its time. The same year also brought a steam disinfector of the most improved type to the hospital this was used to disinfect patient's clothing and bedding. Sometimes these items were burnt if they could not be disinfected. Sulphur Dioxide and formalin were used to disinfect the clothes.

Every effort had been used to prevent the spread of smallpox in the Rotherham district, so when another outbreak occurred in the area it caused a great deal of worry in the mind of the public as well as the local authorities. A man from the Aston district who was suffering with smallpox had been treated in the Workhouse Hospital because he was a rural case and Badsley Moor Lane Hospital at that time only dealt with Rotherham district cases. In the Workhouse the disease had quickly passed onto other patients and within no time nine people had been diagnosed of which three died. By January 1893 the Rotherham Corporations Public Health Committee became deeply concerned about the danger of bringing a smallpox patient into a general hospital placed in heart of the town. They obtained an interview with Mr. Fowler, the president of the Local Government Board, The Mayor, and ex Mayor as well as Mr. Mason (Chairman of the Public Health Committee) and Dr. Robinson all passed their concerns and worries regarding this matter. The result of this interview was prompt action being taken by the Government Department. Dr. Downes, an Inspector of the Local Government Board visited the workhouse and summoned a meeting at short notice with the Board Of Guardians, this meeting was not open to the press. The meeting resulted in an agreement that the Corporation should build a temporary hospital for the use of none Rotherham cases. The Guardians would pay a percentage on outlay and the cost of maintenance. A second extension would be built on the present site on the common land which was situated across the road from the present Badsley Moor Lane Hospital. The work was completed before the end of January the same year. This arrangement was the first of many that would link the Corporation with the Board of Guardians together to improve the health of the people in Rotherham and outer districts.