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6
The principal Zymotic Diseases have therefore, with the
exception of Small Fox and Scarlatina, caused a smaller proportion
of our deaths than has been the case in the Metropolis
as a whole.
The Vestry, with a desire to afford every facility for the
isolation of infectious diseases, instructed me to send to
hospital all cases of infectious disease requiring isolation
whether any part of the cost of maintenance could be defrayed
by the patients friends or not, in addition to, as heretofore,
those whose friends could pay some portion of this cost. The
number of persons thus seeking the benefit of isolation is increasing,
and doubtless will continue to increase as the
advantage to be gained by such a step is more fully recognised.
The question of provision of hospital accommodation for
persons suffering from infectious diseases and who are not
paupers, again received the consideration of the Vestry, and
was referred to the Vestry Clerk and your Medical Officer for
report.
In this report the opinion was expressed that the present
machinery should be retained in the hands of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board, and the Board elected by the Sanitary
Authorities, instead of the Board of Guardians. Further,
that every sufferer, irrespective of his ability to pay, should
he admitted to these hospitals, leaving it to the Board to arrange
for payment in cases of persons able to do so, and in the cases
of persons who are actually paupers they could either, as in
the case of Poor children at School Board Schools, be relieved
of payment, or the cost could be charged to the Board of
Guardians of the Parish or Union to which they belonged.
A deputation from several of the Vestries has since waited on
the President of the Local Government Board with a view to
obtaining the necessary powers to send non-pauper cases to
the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, the cost of
such cases to be paid by the Vestries, but such an
arrangement cannot be regarded as satisfactory ; for
although a difficulty to be met with in any alteration of
the constitution of the Metropolitan Asylums Board is found
in the fact that this Board has other duties besides that of
providing for infectious cases, such as the care of pauper
children in certain Training Ships and of Imbeciles, duties
which could not conveniently be transferred to a Board elected
by Sanitary Authorities, it must not be forgotten that,
beyond the objection which would exist in the mind