For each patient, this register recorded their name, age, dates of admission to and discharge from the sick ward, the nature of their medical condition and its outcome, which might be death or transfer to the main workhouse or separate children's accommodation. Also listed were any dietary 'extras' they were receiving, such as eggs, bacon, milk, beer, wine, gin, brandy or whisky! Originally, workhouse infirmaries were set up to treat workhouse inmates only. From the 1870s onwards, however, they increasingly dealt with the outside sick poor, who could be treated without their needing to become workhouse inmates. This example is from Ancestry's Bedfordshire collection. See tinyurl.com/MedicalOfficersReliefList for more…
