Unoccupied Beds in Cottage Hospitals

Cottage Hospitals?that the Cottage Hospital idea may have been rather overdone because of the steady falling off in the number of occupied beds, and that in England and Wales, excluding London, they had 1,839 beds vacant throughout the whole of last year. No one appreciates more than myself the value of Sir Napier Burnett's report, but I regret that he has lent the weight of his great authority to this statement. I feel quite sure that he did not mean it to be interpreted as I have done, but I am afraid that some people reading it will take it in that sense. Of course, those who are acquainted with hospital statistics will realise that these Cottage Hospital beds were not unoccupied, in the sense that they were otherwise available " all the year round." I am glad that attention has been drawn to the fact that the fullest use is not made of all