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58
In July, at a Conference of Delegates of the Metropolitan Asylums Board and the
Borough Councils, "on the administration of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891," convened by
the County Council, and held at the County Hall; the Conference, " taking note that the Asylums
Board were prepared to extend the operations of their ambulance service as to include the transport
of medical, surgical, and mental cases," resolved, by an unanimous vote, to request the Local
Government Board to "obtain for the Managers the requisite legal authority to enable them to do
so." The opinion, moreover, was expressed that "should the County Council not be able to provide
for a Street Ambulance Service," this duty also "should be undertaken by the Board."
In November, the Asylums Board reminded the Council that it was upwards of nine months
since their Ambulance Committee had sought a conference with the Council on the question of
London's Ambulance Services, and no conference had taken place. Reference was made in this
communication to disclosures at recent inquests, from which it was evident that much suffering
would have been prevented if the Board's ambulances had been .employed for the removal to
hospital of certain injured persons. The disclosures in question " had caused much concern to the
Ambulance Committee," who were in a position to undertake the conveyance of accident cases
immediately upon the necessary legal authority being obtained. The Committee, regarding the
delay as " deplorable," and understanding that the Council were considering the establishment of
an ambulance service which would deal with street accidents only, asked to be informed if that
were the case, for if it were, they would renew their application to the Local Government
Board for the legal authority necessary to enable them to place their ambulances at the disposal of
the public, "for the conveyance of mental, medical and surgical cases." The Council, in their reply,
expressed the hope that they would be in a position tc confer with the Asylums Board on the
subject "shortly after the Christmas recess," which terminated at the end of January 1905. In the
last week of that month, the Board wrote to say that they would be glad to know if the Council
were then able "to name a date for the proposed conference" ? If not, the Ambulance Committee
desired to press for a reply to the question addressed to the Council in November, 1904, namely,
" whether the Council was considering the question of establishing an ambulance service which
would deal with street accidents only ? "
The correspondence was brought to a close by a letter from the Council (28th January, 1905),
in which it was stated that " the question of the desirableness of undertaking the provision and
management of an ambulance service for the conveyance of street accidents, was still under the
consideration of a Committee, and it was hoped that a report would be made to the Council at an
early date." The letter continued—"At the present moment, the question of undertaking the
conveyance of cases other than those arising from accidents or casualties in the streets was not
under consideration ; it would therefore appear that any action which the Council might take would
have regard to such different classes of cases to those of mental, medical and surgical patients, with
which the Metropolitan Asylums Board intended to deal, that no useful purpose was likely to be
served by such conference as had been proposed." All which could have been said just as well
eleven months before; the limitation of the Board's scheme having been explained in their first
letter to the Council, in February 1904.
The Asylums Board, on the 6th February, forwarded a copy of the correspondence to the
Local Government Board, and again urged them to "sanction the utilisation of the Managers'
ambulances for the conveyance of medical, surgical and mental cases, upon the terms set forth in
their letter to the Board, dated 30th November, 1903." The decision of the Local Government
Board had not been received by the Managers when this report went to press. It only remains
to say that, in the interests of the inhabitants of the Metropolis, it is to be desired that their
decision will authorise the Managers to undertake the duty. It is to be hoped, moreover, that the
County Council will see their way to establish an efficient street ambulance service, the need for
which was strongly urged upon the candidates at the election in 1904, by the Metropolitan Street
Ambulance Association.
It may be mentioned that the question of an ambulance service for non-infectious cases
attracted public attention at the end of 1904, consequent on the appearance in The Times of an
article (" The Legal Poor of London "), in which the hope was expressed that those concerned
in making provision of the sort would " hasten the completion of such formalities as were necessary
for putting into operation a suitable scheme." In a similar article, at the end of 1903, the hope had
been expressed that the Asylums Board were " taking steps which would remove from London the
reproach of its backwardness, as compared with English provincial towns, in regard to ambulance
provision for general medical and surgical cases." As, a month before the publication of the last
named article, viz., on 28th November, 1903, the Managers had passed the resolution (cited above).