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22
scheme for the district nursing of Measles, German
Measles, and Whooping-cough in London.
It is much to he regretted that the Metropolitan Asylums
Board are under no obligation to remove cases of
Measles to or from hospital, except upon the order of a
Poor Law Medical Officer.
This restriction, in my opinion, is quite unnecessary
and moreover causes much hardship and danger to
life. It occasionally happens that a child taken to one
of the general hospitals either develops Measles in the
ward after admission or is found to be so suffering in
the out-patient department. The hospitals have no wards
for infectious cases and cannot (in justice to their other
patients) retain patients suffering from infectious diseases.
As a result, children with acute Measles have been sent
home through the streets in bitter weather at the risk
of their lives from Bronchitis and Pneumonia. Surely
some arrangement could be made with the Metropolitan
Asylums Board under which their ambulances could be
available for the transfer of such cases, either to the
homes of the sufferers, or in necessitous cases to the
Board's Hospitals, on the certificate of the Hospital
Medical Officer. I am informed that the Board occasionally
allow their ambulances to be used for the transfer
of Measles cases, but this is done as a favour only; the
hospital authorities cannot demand the use of them.
The following table indicates the locality (hospital or
home) of the deaths from infectious diseases; in addition
it includes cases of Measles and Whooping-cough which
have been admitted to the Asylums Board Hospitals from
Poor Law Infirmaries, etc.