Analele Banatului. Arheologie-Istorie (Dec 2022)
CIRCUMSTANȚELE MEDICALE ȘI SANITARE DIN TIMIȘOARA ANILOR 1924-1943, REFLECTATE ÎN ARHIVA SPITALULUI DE STAT ȘI ÎN REVISTA VIAȚA MEDICALĂ
Abstract
After the establishment of the Romanian administration in the region of Banat, the sanitary and medical situation in Timisoara improved a lot. The sanitary reports of the time reflect this situation, but at the same time they also highlight the shortcomings that the city was still facing, such as the housing crisis, the malnutrition, the alcoholism which, along with other factors, led to an increase in the evolution of social diseases. The improvements made regarding the provision of an appropriate hygiene and sanitary care in the city on the shores of the Bega River, included: the start of the works for the installation of the public lavatories, the inauguration of the asylum for the poor, the popular bath from the Scudier Park, the steam baths, as well as the swimming pools and the private sport clubs. In addition to these, in the sanitary reports of the second quarter of the 20th century, was expressed the necessity for the establishment of an appropriate system of social housing for workers, in order to assure workers in different industries with the main sanitary-hygienic norms and provide them a minimum comfort and well-being, encouraging steps in this direction being already carried out with the awareness of these needs and the setting up of bathrooms with showers, sinks with faucet and changing rooms, as well as dining rooms in over 200 industrial units. Undeniable testimonies on the concerns regarding the provision of a proper hygiene and adequate medical care in Timisoara and not only, are provided by the documents from the archive of the State Hospital in Timisoara, located in the collection of the History Department of the National Museum of Banat, which contain numerous information regarding the activity of this medical institution, but also regarding the activity of Timisoara's Hygiene Laboratory. In Timisoara, many personalities and organizations of the time in the field of medicine were involved and fought to achieve goals that aimed at inscribing this city on the path of modernization and curative and therapeutic innovation specific to the 20th century.
