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available. There resulted a longer or shorter delay in
removing some of the patients, 139 patients not
being removed within twenty-four hours of the application
for removal. The cases thus delayed comprised
113 of scarlet fever, and 26 of diphtheria. The
appended statement shows the extent of the delay :—
Days of delay. Scarlet Fever. Diphtheria.
One 53 13
Two 24 7
Three 14 3
More than three 22 3
113 26
If hospital isolation is to be real and efficient, the
patients requiring such isolation should be removed
within the shortest possible time after diagnosis. The
above record is to that extent unsatisfactory, but it
should in fairness be remarked that the delay indicated
appears to have caused practically no harm. In the
case of scarlet fever, the delay extended in one case
to 23 days, and in another to 24, but the system of
daily application by the Department, with statement
of the circumstances making each removal urgent or
otherwise, has worked well, and no case that could be
described as in real need of immediate hospital isolation
was kept at home more than twenty-four hours
after application.
In the Reports for 1895* and 1896† attention has
* p. 41.
† pp. 59 and 144.