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10
Infectious
hospitals
Details of the actual users of the three main groups of special hospitals are set
out below.
The authorised number of beds in the town fever hospitals at the beginning of
the year was 965 for infectious patients and 2,450 for casualties, compared with the
peace-time figure of 5,007 for fevers. About 1,000 beds were unavailable owing to
war conditions, and these included the valuable isolation blocks. Early in the year
a number of casualty beds were changed back for fever use, and, when pressure on
the general hospitals became acute, about 1,500 general medical and surgical
patients were dealt with in the casualty wards of the fever hospitals. Although the
incidence of infectious disease was low during the whole year, there was a sharp
epidemic of german measles in the early part of the year. Cases of cerebrospinal
meningitis were also fairly numerous in the early part of the year, and later there
was a clearly defined general rise in the number of all diseases due mainly to the
seasonal increase in infections generally. To meet this increase in infectious cases,
the casualty beds at the fever hospitals were reduced to 675.
The highest number of fever patients under treatment during the year was
2,176 on 27th December. The lowest figure was 580 on 28th June; but, during
the first six months of the year, the number under treatment never rose above
1,060 and indeed was as low as 700 on the first day of the year, indicating the effect
of the evacuation from London of about half the children of school age, whose drift
back to London did not for some weeks seriously influence the previous decline in
infectious disease. At the end of the year 80 infectious patients were being admitted
daily. This compares with 85 admissions daily in December, 1938, when there
were 3,000 patients under treatment. The total number of infectious patients
admitted to the fever hospitals during 1940 was 18,000, compared with 39,000 in
1938, which was a year of measles epidemic. The two-year cycle, under which the
incidence of measles has hitherto regularly assumed epidemic proportions, was not
followed in 1940. In addition, a fairly large number of Service sick patients were
dealt with in certain hospitals during the early months of the year.
Smallpox
No patients were admitted to the smallpox hospitals during 1940. As South
Wharf Receiving Station ceased to be available, arrangements were made with the
Surrey County Council for the admission to the Clandon Hospital of any sporadic
cases of this disease which might occur.
Tuberculosis
hospitals
As stated above, St. Luke's Hospital, Lowestoft, Millfield Convalescent Hospital
and St. George's Home were closed, and the accommodation for tuberculosis was
further diminished by the allocation of beds for casualties at each of the tuberculosis
hospitals. Owing to pressure on this reduced accommodation for tuberculosis
patients, it became necessary to utilise some of the beds earmarked for casualties,
and finally Grove Park and Heatherwood Hospitals and Pinewood Sanatorium
were released from the obligation of reserving beds for casualties.
The number of Emergency Medical Service patients admitted to the tuberculosis
hospitals was small, but all available accommodation for tuberculosis patients was
fully utilised.
Children's
hospitals
The scheme whereby the Council makes grants to the invalid Children s Aid
Association towards the cost of providing convalescent accommodation for children
has continued, and a considerable number of children were sent away by this means.
No convalescent accommodation for children was available in the Council's hospitals.
At Queen Mary's and the Downs Hospitals for Children, where for various
reasons the accommodation available was less than normal, the available beds were
fully occupied, but were adequate to meet demands. Units for the reception of
healthy nursery children and children of expectant mothers, evacuated under the
Government scheme, were established at the Downs Hospital for Children and adult
chronic sick patients were also accommodated there.
On the outbreak of war, the vulvo-vaginitis unit at St. Margaret's Hospital and
the congenital syphilis unit at St. John's Hospital were transferred to Queen Mary's