The health department is under the administration of a board of health, comprising the commissioner of health (whose salary is $11,000), the commissioner of sanitation ($10,000), the com missioner of hospitals ($10,000), and two physicians appointed by the mayor. The professional and technical services are divided among several bureaus. The board drafts its own Sanitary Code, to which the police may compel obedience, regulating such matters as foods, drugs, noises, hazardous occupations, etc. It works in close co-operation with the newer departments of hospitals and sanitation, the latter of which has charge of street-cleaning and waste removal, previously discharged by the department of street cleaning and other administrative divisions. Among its educa tional and preventive activities the department operates a number of baby health stations, dental clinics, children's eye clinics, and advisory clinics for patients suffering from venereal diseases. The total appropriation for 1936 amounted to $4,748,229.10 for the health department, $17,154,349.70 for the department of hospi tals and $34,480,326.91 for the department of sanitation. The U.S. Public Health service manages the Quarantine station at Rosebank, S.I., where incoming vessels are inspected for quaran tinable diseases ; and units are provided on Hoffman island in the Lower bay for care of incoming passengers suspected of hav ing contracted these. The medical inspection of immigrants at the Ellis island immigration station is also made by this service which is also in charge of three U.S. marine hospitals in the New York zone. Among the great number of unofficial agencies chiefly concerned with health betterment within the city and its environs, the following deserve special mention: the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association, New York Diet Kitchen Association, Henry Street Settlement, Maternity Center, Committee for Health Service among Jews, New York Child Welfare Committee, Com mittee on Maternal Health, Judson Health Centre, East Harlem Health Center and Public Health Committee of the New York Academy of Medicine. The Catholic Charities of the Arch diocese of New York, the Association for Improving the Condi tion of the Poor, the Charity Organization Society, the Children's Aid Society, and the Jewish Social Service Association also con cern themselves with public health.
There are in New York city some one hundred and eighty-one general and special hospitals available for the care of the sick of all classes. These include about fifty private hospitals, twenty-six municipally supported institutions, and six hospitals maintained by the State. Recent estimates place the total num ber of hospital beds in the city at nearly 35,000, not including the beds in hospitals for the insane. The 26 municipal hospitals account for about one-half of the total number of beds. In addition to the municipal and private hospital services, there are two hospitals for the insane under the direction and control of the New York State department of mental hygiene; i.e., the Brooklyn State hospital of 1,589 beds, and the Manhattan State hospital of 6,516 beds. The municipal hospitals beginning Feb. 1, 1929, are now administered by a newly created department of hospitals headed by a commissioner appointed by the mayor.
Among the more important city hospitals are the Bellevue, Harlem, and Gouverneur general hospitals, in the borough of Manhattan ; Fordham, a general hospital in the borough of the Bronx; and Neponsit Beach, a hospital for bone tuberculosis in the borough of Queens, the city and metropolitan hospitals on Welfare Island and five hospitals for communicable diseases. There is also the Reception hospital for classification. Although the municipal hospitals are free to indigent patients, all except the communicable disease hospitals conducted by the city health department have fixed charges for service, ranging from 8o cents to $2.25 per day.
Among the chief private general hospitals are Mount Sinai, St. Luke's, Presbyterian, New York, Roosevelt, Lenox Hill and the Post Graduate. All of these hospitals are in the borough of Manhattan. In Brooklyn are the Long Island College hospital, Jewish, Brooklyn and Methodist Episcopal. Of the private special hospitals for women and children, the Lying-in, Sloane Maternity, Nursery and Child's, Woman's and Misericordia are the largest. Other special hospitals of note are the Orthopaedic, Ruptured and Crippled, Joint Diseases, New York Eye and Ear infirmary, Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat hospital, Skin and Cancer hospital and Neurological institute.
Forty of the general hospitals, municipal and private, operate about i oo public ambulances. This service is under the control of a board of ambulance service. Among the recent events of interest in connection with the private hospital services of the city is the establishment of the Presbyterian-Columbia Medical centre. Here in upper Manhattan are clustered the buildings of five separate units: the Presbyterian Hospital (including: the Presbyterian Hospital, the Sloane Hospital for Women, the Vanderbilt Clinic, the Squier Urological Clinic, the Stephen V. Harkness Private Patient Pavilion, and the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing) ; the Columbia University group (in cluding the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the School of Dental and Oral Surgery, the School of Oral Hygiene, and the DeLamar Institute of Public Health) ; the Babies Hospital of the City of New York; the Neurological Institute of New York ; and the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Hospital.