4 - The municipal hospital and the isolation of acute infectious diseases

Summary

THE FACILITIES: SANATORIUM, GRANGE, AND LABORATORY

When Arthur Newsholme took up his post as Brighton's Medical Officer of Health, the town already had a municipal isolation hospital, the Brighton Sanatorium. The Sanitary Committee's intention in appointing a full-time M.O.H. was that the incumbent would also step into the posts of Medical Officer of the Sanatorium and Surgeon to the Police Force when these positions became vacant. The promise of additional income and a more unified health service was soon fulfilled. Six months later the incumbent of the Sanatorium position announced his intention of resigning by Christmas 1888, and Newsholme was appointed in his place at an additional salary of £150 per year. He never held the post with the police force, relinquishing his claim to the job in 1892 in order to secure an increase in his combined salaries from £650 to £800 per year. The loss of the appointment with the police force was not of great moment. But the fact that Newsholme was both M.O.H. and Medical Officer of the Sanatorium was of the utmost importance for his career and for the development of the public health program in Brighton. Over the next fifteen years he would direct the transformation of the institution and its place in the town's social services. From the beginning Newsholme recognized the significance of the second post. In fact, a rumor circulated in the Council for some time after his appointment that he had paid off the previous Medical Officer to secure the latter's resignation.

The fact that it had an isolation hospital in the 1880s placed Brighton in the minority of provincial towns.