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96
All cases of Measles are visited and where home conditions are
unsatisfactory, parents are advised to have patients removed to hospital.
In June, a letter was received from the Metropolitan Asylums Board
which stated, inter alia:—
that, after careful consideration and consultation
with representatives of the Ministry of Health, the London County
Council and the Metropolitan Branch of the Society of the Medical
Officers of Health, it has been agreed that, in view of the much
higher mortality of measles, and its far greater destructive effect on
child life, the present practice of always admitting scarlet fever in
preference to measles shall be abandoned: that in lieu thereof there
shall be a definite allocation of beds for the two diseases; that the
allocation shall be revised periodically in relation to the requirements
of the moment and that in times of measles prevalence the
larger proportion of accommodation shall be allocated to measles."
" . . . the effect of this decision will be that, when the
incidence of infectious disease is such that the Board can admit all
cases they are asked to receive, so far as scarlet fever is concerned,
no alteration of the present arrangement will be necessary. Any
medical practitioner will be able, as at present, to secure the removal
of a case by direct application to the Head Office of the Board or the
nearest ambulance station, and, in the case of measles, the revised
arrangement will enable the medical practitioner to secure the
removal of a patient to hospital with the same facility as in the case
of scarlet fever. When, however, the number of beds available
becomes short and, say 75 per Cent. of the accommodation set apart
for the two diseases is exhausted, any person desiring the admission
of a case of either scarlet fever or measles will be referred to the
Medical Officer of Health with a view to his selecting those cases
which, in his opinion, should be received into hospital having regard
to all the circumstances.''
This information was circulated to all medical practitioners in the
Borough and it was pointed out to them that the following points were
considered of importance in guiding the Medical Officer of Health in
coming to a decision where, when there is a shortage of beds for either
disease, the circumstances of a case warranted the removal to Hospital:—