 This victory did not delay the workhouse 's fate ; the site was duly sold to the Catholic Church for £ 110 @,@ 000 , and demolition began in January 1931 . Nevertheless , Bessie , who had been appalled by the housing conditions in the ward , helped to instigate a slum clearance campaign which slowly brought improvements . As a member of the council 's Port Sanitary and Hospitals Committee , which controlled all the city 's hospitals and residential homes for the elderly , Bessie discovered that the hospitals were generally verminous , drably decorated and poorly ventilated , with inadequate cooking facilities . Patients ' record @-@ keeping systems were rudimentary , with little or no communication between hospitals . She became involved in the reform , reorganisation and modernisation of many of the city 's health facilities , in particularly those related to mothers and children . From 1934 she was chairman of the Maternity and Child Welfare subcommittee , and in June 1936 worked with other women 's groups to organise a national conference on maternity and child welfare issues . 
