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78
AMBULANCE SERVICE,
Annual Report of the Ambulance Committee.—The
Committee refer with regret to the increased prevalence of
scarlet fever and diphtheria in 1896, as compared with 1895,
some 25,647 cases of scarlet fever having been notified against
19,757; and 13,362 cases of diphtheria, against 10,772. This
fact, and the fact that "the proportion of notified cases that
were admitted into the Managers' hospitals showed a further
increase during the year, "caused" the work accomplished by
the Land Ambulance Service to be considerably in excess" of
any previous year. The accommodation in the hospitals was
insufficient, and selection had to be made of the most urgent
cases, both early in the year and at a later period. The
Gore Farm Hospital at Darenth (erected for the accommodation
of small-pox convalescent patients) was used during the
whole year for scarlet fever convalescent patients. Extra beds,
moreover, were placed in the wards of several of the hospitals.
The Brook Ambulance Station, adjacent to the Brook
Hospital, at Woolwich, commenced work on August 17th. It is
anticipated that the new stations adjacent to the Northwestern
Hospital (at Hampstead), and the South Western
Hospital (at Stockwell) will be completed and brought into
operation in 1897.
Land Service.—During 1896 some 22,152 patients were
removed to the hospitals, as compared with 16,725 in 1895.
The removal of small-pox patients numbered 265, against
1,045 in 1895. The average daily removals of fever patients
in the first half of the year was 53, and in the second half 68;
as compared with 36 and 56 in 1895. The aggregate
removals during the year, including the trausfer of patients
from one hospital to another, numbered 44,374; viz., 14,542
by the Eastern Station; 14,634 by the Western (or Fulham)
Station; 13,137 by the South-Eastern Station; and 2,091 by