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action taken by the Medical Officer of Health was prompt; the
services of the Vaccination Officer were at once made available:
house to house visitations were made, and stringent disinfection
measures were enforced, with the result that the outbreak wasrematk
ably limited in area and was soon subdued." In the course of the
year, 200 patients, who in the opinion of the inspecting Medical
Officer at the Wharf were not suffering from small-pox, were returned
to their homes.
Fever Patients.—At the commencement of 1893, some 3,559
cases of fever, diphtheria, &c., were under treatment in the hospitals,
a number greater by 1,718 than at the beginning of 1892. In order
to accommodate scarlet fever patients, the accommodation for enteric
fever cases was reduced to the lowest point, and, by arrangements
made with General Hospitals, 170 cases of this disease were removed
to those institutions.
Diphtheria.—The cases removed, certified to be suffering from
this disease, or from diphtheritic membranous croup, numbered 3,194,
but many of these ultimately proved to be not of a diphtheritic
character. The Committee observe that, "It is in connection with
patients suffering from this disease that an insufficiency of hospital
accommodation makes itself most acutely felt. The unavoidable
delay sometimes experienced in ascertaining if and where a vacant
bed exists, and the deplorable necessity of transporting some patients
to a hospital at a considerable distance from their homes, or from the
general hospital to which they have in the first instance been taken,
cause, it is feared, a great increase both of risk and discomfort to the
sufferer, and certainly much dissatisfaction to all concerned."
During the year, 590 persons suffering from infectious disorders
were conveyed in the Ambulances to other places than the Managers'
Hospitals : of these, 26 were stated to have measles, 362 scarlet fever,
72 enteric fever, 58 diphtheria, 53 erysipelas, 14 small-pox, and 8
"other diseases": 270 of these patients were removed to the London
Fever Hospital, Liverpool Road, Islington. The charge for the use
of an Ambulance is five shillings, and for the service of a nurse halfa-crown.