The Crown Principality now had “a hospital that can rightly be counted among the best of its kind in Austria. The Emperor, Chernivtsi and the country have all contributed to it, none of the nationalities of the country has a special share in it, it belongs to everyone because everyone has helped” (ibid.). However, the new institution did briefly become a political issue, with allegations that Romanian applicants were given preferential treatment in the recruitment process: “[...] and yet one gets the impression that certain elements of the population consider this general hospital as their very own domain, where they can do as they please, as they wish. At the very least, the way in which the posts there have been filled gives good reason for this observation” (ibid.).
Those in charge were interested in improving the facilities of the new hospital. Prof. Wolan, medical councillor and head physician of the General Public Hospital in Chernivtsi, appealed in the press for donations of books, magazines and newspapers: “With the increasing generalisation of popular education, the hospital is becoming more and more populated by literate people, and if, in addition, first and second class admission rooms are opened in the new hospital for wealthier and more educated patients, the need for a reading room becomes all the more urgent” (Bukowinaer Rundschau, 13 December 1883, p. 5).
In 1889 the provincial hospital had 250 beds, by 1901 it had 400 beds and 4426 people were treated in one year. By the 1900s, however, the growing population had exhausted the hospital's capacity, and there were discussions about building a new hospital or relocating certain departments. A planned Kaiser Franz Joseph Jubilee Hospital as a municipal hospital with public rights could not be realised.
Text: Markus Winkler
