Fever hospital

The hospitals became common in England when laws were passed at the end of the 19th century, requiring notification of infectious diseases so that public health officers could ensure that the patients were isolated.

[4] It has been suggested that creating modern isolation hospitals might be an effective way of managing highly infectious diseases as was shown in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fever hospitals or "houses of recovery" were then established in other major cities – Chester, Hull, London, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Norwich.

[7]: 23 In London, there were protests and legal action against fever hospitals by residents who were concerned about the risk of infection.

Siting of the hospitals next to rivers, so that transport of patients could be limited to ambulance steamers was found to reduce this.

[9] Cross-infection was a significant issue because patients with different diseases might be put in the same ward and share facilities such as towels.

To prevent return cases, hospitals tried extending the period of isolation and giving patients disinfectant washes with formalin or Lysol when discharging them.

The London Fever Hospital
Smallpox hospital ships moored at Long Reach . They are (L–R) Atlas , Endymion and Castalia . The latter had two hulls on which hospital buildings were constructed.
Isolation Hospitals at Ham Green, Bristol, 1897