View report page

43
Officers.—Dr. Haldane Cook is the resident medical superintendent and
sole medical officer. The Clerk and Surveyor of the Enfield Council still act as
Clerk and Architect of the Hospital. Miss Eardley is the matron; there are
1 assistant matron, 5 sisters (1 for night duty), 3 staff nurses, 1 assistant nurse,
18 probationers and 7 ward maids; in 1913-14, the resident staff numbered 57
and the outdoor staff 3, compared with 46 and 6 the previous year.
Fire.—The Hospital is in telephonic communication with Edmonton
Fire Station.
Sewage.—This is disposed of by a private system consisting of a
separating chamber, a septic tank and filter beds, the effluent passing into the
watercourse known as Hounsden Gutter, a tributary of Salmon's Brook.
Antitoxin.—During 1913-14, Dr. Cook used it in all cases where none,
or an insufficient quantity had been administered to the diphtheria case before
admission. In most cases 4,000 units were given, and some were given as
much as 48,000 units. Drugs were only given for the treatment of complications.
He again urged medical men to give antitoxin at once to cases of
diphtheria or suspected diphtheria, and not to let them wait until hospital is
reached. Dr. Cook says, "The mortality is far too great, and I maintain that
this is entirely due to the delay by practitioners in administering antitoxin."
Widal's Test was applied to all the cases of enteric fever.
Return Cases.—In his Report for 1910-11, Dr. Cook defines a "return
case" to be "any person admitted from the same house to which we have
discharged a scarlet fever patient within a period of six weeks." During the
year 1914 there have been 21 such of scarlet fever and 5 of diphtheria.
Dr. Cook estimates the percentage of return cases of scarlet fever during
1913-14 as 1.49, compared with 4.56 for the previous period.
In my report for November, I was obliged to draw the attention of the
Sanitary Committee to the number of return cases and instances of crossinfection
amongst Edmonton children. This report was ordered to be sent to
the Joint Board.
SMALL POX HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATlON.
Since January 31st, 1907, the Middlesex Districts Joint Small-pox
Hospital has been in existence at South Mimms. We must rejoice that
although precepts have been made from time to time on the Edmonton
treasury, no patients from the district have been sent there yet with small-pox.
The money (£222 for 1914-5; it was £219 the year before) is a premium for
an advantageous insurance.