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Since we left her about to disembark at Scutari, Florence Nightingale had quickly experienced the political climate she would be facing. A flowery welcome from hospital dignitaries with promises of help and cooperation was quickly exposed as a sham when the party were shown their accomodation; six rooms in one of the corner towers, of which one was a kitchen and one little more than a cupboard, were considered adequate for her party of thirty eight. Similar space in another of the towers was occupied by one major!
Part of it was due to serene self-delusion that nothing was wrong. Why should the coarse soldiery get any better treatment now than during the Peninsula War? The treatment at Scutari was certainly no worse. There was also the absurd gut feeling particularly prevalent among regimental field officers and warrant officers that the best soldiers did not fall sick. With such standards it is perhaps not surprising that the Chief of Medical Staff in the Crimean theatre Dr John Hall, the British Ambassador to Turkey our old friend Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, and the Senior Medical Officer at the Barrack Hospital Dr Menzies, had all unhappily for them reported officially and in writing to higher authority that they had inspected the Barrack Hospital and found the medical facilities there perfectly adequate. They could think of no changes to recommend. So here were at least three influential potential adversaries who would fight tooth and nail to discredit any adverse comments Florence might make. The supplies people - the Commissariat and the Purveyor's Department - were equally resentful. The dividing line between their responsibilities was blurred and elusive; perhaps intentionally as neither department had the reputation of willingly accepting accountability. On the face of it it looked simple - the Commissariat supplied the standard rations and daily meat as well as the fuel for cooking it; the Purveyor provided the cooking facilities and the special rations required for the sick. But the Purveyor had to obtain these specials through the Commissariat who set up contracts for their provision and delivery. Nothing could be set in motion without a mass of signatures, beginning with the doctor on the ward who stipulated the diet he required for his patient, through several tray-days of layers of medical and supplies hierarchy, during which time the patient may well have died. He might as well have died, as the final signatory had no intention of creating a precedent by issuing special rations - what if everyone wanted them? |
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