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73
METROPOLITAN AMBULANCE SERVICE.
Although at the present time of writing, the need for a street accident ambulance service has not
been supplied, there is reasonable ground for hoping that, ere long, the reproach of being behind many
other cities in this matter, will have been removed from the Metropolis—but in what precise manner
is at present not apparent. The London County Council carried out their resolve to apply to
Parliament for power to provide a " Street Accident Ambulance Service by introducing clauses in
their General Powers Bill, 1906 (Part IV. " Ambulance Service "), which read as follows:—
Clause 23. It shall be lawful for the Council to establish and maintain, or to contribute
towards the cost of, or otherwise aid in establishing and maintaining, an ambulance
service for dealing with cases of accident or illness in the streets or other public places in the
County.
24. (1) The Council may for the purposes of this part of this Act, and as and when they
may think requisite for carrying such purposes into effect:—
(a) appropriate, hold and use any lands or buildings for the time being vested in them
for any purpose for which such lands or buildings are not required;
(b) take on lease, purchase by agreement, or otherwise acquire any lands or buildings
within the County;
(c) erect or cause to be erected, and maintain, repair and manage on any lands so appropriated
or acquired any buildings suitable for the said purposes;
(d) adapt, furnish and equip any buildings so appropriated, acquired or erected.
(2) The Council may from time to time sell, lease or let any lands or buildings
acquired by, or vested in them for the purposes of this part of this Act and not
required for such purposes.
(3) The Council may for the purposes of this part of this Act, establish and maintain,
or contract with any Company or persons for the establishment and maintenance of
telegraphic, telephonic, or other suitable means of communication between the
several buildings used for the purposes of this part of this Act, and between any of
such buildings and other parts of the County.
25. (1) For the purposes of this part of this Act, the Council may employ and pay such
officers and servants as they may think expedient for the efficient conduct of the service
authorised by this part of this Act.
(2) The Council may from time to time provide and maintain such ambulances and
other vehicles, to be drawn by hand or by animal, or electrical or other mechanical
power, as they may think requisite for the accommodation and conveyance of persons
meeting with accidents, or seized with illness in the streets or public places in the
County.
The Bill passed the House of Commons, but the Select Committee of the House of Lords
struck out the ambulance clauses on the ground of the inadequacy of the scheme proposed by the
Council. The City Corporation opposed the clauses on the ground that they, and not the County
Council, should be the authority for dealing with the matter in the City itself. The Borough
Council, moreover, acting upon the recommendation of the Public Health Committee, presented a
petition to both Houses of Parliament "calling attention to the public need of a Metropolitan
Ambulance Service",* which, as a contribution to the history of an important movement, may fitly be
reproduced in this place. It read as follows:—
Petition Praying for an Inquiry as to the desirability of providing a public Ambulance
Service, under a single Authority, for the whole Metropolis.
To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal.
[To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland] in Parliament Assembled.
The Humble Petition of the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Royal Borough of Kensington.
Sheweth as follows:
* Under the heading Metropolitan Ambulance Service I had dealt fully with the question in the last Monthly Report for
1905, which was referred by the Council to the Public Health Committee, who in a report, adopted by the Council on 13th
February, 1906, recommended—
(а) That a copy of the report of the Medical Officer of Health on " Metropolitan Ambulance Service " be sent to the
Members of Parliament for the Borough, and that they be asked to call the attention of the House of Commons to
the need of a Metropolitan Ambulance Service for sick and injured persons, and to raise the question as to the
authority to which the provision of such a service should be entrusted.
(b) That a copy of the report be forwarded to each of the members of the Committee on the London County Council
(General Powers) Bill, and to other members of Parliament likely to be interested in the question.
(c) That a copy of the report be also forwarded to the Metropolitan Borough Councils, and that they be invited to take
similar action in the matter.
(d)That a petition be presented to each House of Parliament, calling attention to the public need of a Metropolitan
Ambulance Service, and emphasizing the desirability of such service being provided and maintained by a single
authority.