By Wilfrid Edgecombe, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S.
The history of the Harrogate and District General
Hospital
Endowment Fund
The endowment fund is made up of legacies, bequests and donations
made to hospitals before and after the "appointed day." Those made
before the takeover were appropriated by the Government under the
National Health Service and the income derived therefrom is
distributed regionally throughout the country on a proportionate
basis. Legacies, bequests and donations made, or falling due, after
the appointed day are the property of the individual hospitals to which they were given and constitute "free monies" to be
used in accordance with the specific wishes of the donors or at the
direction of the management for the benefit of the hospital
concerned.
The policy has been to expend it as far as possible on items of a
permanent nature not obtainable from Exchequer funds. The subjoined
figures show the expenditure in the Harrogate General Hospital from
year to year, together with some of the major items. Many of these
should normally have come from Exchequer funds, under the heading of
day-to-day maintenance but owing to financial stringency this was found impossible. Rather than wait
interminably for the necessary grants it was considered justifiable
to use "free monies" for these purposes. Without the endowment fund
the hospital would have been lacking indefinitely in many
much needed improvements and amenities.
Payments from the endowment fund: 1949, £43; 1950, £402; 1951,
£156; 1952, £1,768; 1953, £3.204; 1954, £5,434; 1955, £6.340; 1956,
£8,122; 1957, £5,073, making a total of £30,541.
Here are a few examples of major expenditure incurred. The total
includes a large number of minor miscellaneous items too numerous to
detail. In addition the cost of Christmas festivities, amounting to
about £370, is met each year out of the fund.
