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33
for the reception of scarlet fever patients, a Conference
was convened by the Vestry of St. Marylebone
to discuss the actions of the Asylums Board.
The Conference was attended by delegates from all,
or nearly all, the sanitary authorities of London, and
the following resolutions were adopted:—
1. That a communication be addressed to the Metropolitan Asylums
Board, strongly urging that Board to take steps to immediately open
the vacant beds of the Gore Farm Hospital at Darenth for the purpose
of providing the temporary accommodation required by the London
Local Authorities for the cases of scarlet fever urgently requiring
removal from the crowded families and houses in which they are
spreading the disease.*
2. That in the opinion of this Conference the authorities making the
rate to raise the funds for the requirements of the Metropolitan Asylums
Board should be entitled to be directly and adequately represented
upon that Board.
3. That the President of the Local Government Board be asked to
receive a deputation in support of the foregoing resolutions.†
4. That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be forwarded to the Local
Government Board, the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and the several
Vestries and District Boards of the Metropolis who have appointed
delegates to attend this Conference, and that each of those Vestries and
District Boards be asked to appoint one representative to attend the
proposed deputation to the President of the Local Government Board.
It is somewhat anomalous that London should
be the only town where the provision of hospital
accommodation for infectious disease is in the hands
of a body other than the sanitary authority. The origin
of the Asylums Board explains how this arose. That
body was originally intended to provide accommodation
for the poor sick with infectious disease, and was
formed at a time when sanitation had scarcely made
* Gore Farm was opened just before Christmas,
† The President declined to reoeive a deputation.