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At the turn of the century contagious diseases, illness, and accidents brought injury and sometimes death to the settler population throughout urban and frontier regions of British Columbia. The Native population suffered similarly, especially from contagious diseases. Protection of water, milk, and food supplies was either missing entirely or extremely primitive. Sanitation was lacking in the family homes in most settlements as well as in canneries and logging and mining camps. Resources for caring for the sick and injured were few. Small general hospitals were only available in some of the more built-up regions of British Columbia.(f.1) None were available in the remote regions.
Stories of particular needs and hardships experienced by families and workers living in unpopulated and remote regions came by word of mouth to people in larger centres. Doctors, nurse matrons, and nurses in city hospitals often heard horror stories from patients who were brought in after suffering accidents in remote logging camps. Cottage hospitals were developed for these remote areas through the combined work of interested communities, social activists, and their respective organizations.
Women's groups, such as the Local Council of Women, often took up the cause of improving the quality of life to families in local communities.(f.2) In 1897 the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) initiated a national district nursing program, providing hospital, medical, and nursing care to settlers in remote regions of Canada. In British Columbia cottage hospitals started after two members of the Vancouver chapter of the Council of Women placed a resolution from the Vancouver chapter before a national meeting of the Council of Women, chaired by President Lady Ishbel Aberdeen, the wife of the governor general at that time.(f.3) Both Countess Aberdeen and later Countess Minto gave the district nursing and cottage hospital movement their unqualified personal and financial support enabling its growth and survival on a national level. While many doctors and medical associations initially fought the development of the Victorian Order of Nurses, some doctors gave support and encouragement to the Order.(f.4) Also workers and employers in resource industries gave positive support. This support formed the basis for much of the growing community action.
The phenomenon of cottage hospitals in the hinterland of British Columbia lasted from 1898 until roughly 1919. The hospitals...