Hi Carol
You asked, "In England is the word 'surgical' limited to actual surgery?" To partly answer your question, raditionally in England, a doctor's office, and I am talking about the office of a general practitioner, has been called their "surgery." So you would have people waiting there with various ailments, whether they involved surgery or not. Yes some people might end up having surgery, usually after being sent to a specialist, but others might be just there for a sore throat, to have wax taken out of their ears, or because of warts! So I should think, a similar situation might pertain to a surgical ward, that the patients are there for various ailments not just for actual surgery. Someone with more information on the present-day British medical/hospital system might answer the question... I have not lived there since I left England (Liverpool) at age twenty in 1968.
All the best
Chris
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