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allow staff to discard their jackets in summer months provided white shirts were worn
and an issue of these shirts, which were not previously provided, will be made in future
for use in hot weather.
At the end of the year, the staff comprised, in addition to the headquarters administrative
and clerical staff:
1 Chief Superintendent
8 Superintendents
7 Assistant Superintendents
21 Station officers
692 Operative staff (drivers and attendants).
Included in the above the following were engaged on civil defence training :
1 Superintendent
2 Station Officers
15 Operative staff.
Civil defence
During the year the first stage in the training of the operative staff of the service in their
wartime duties in an expanded civil defence ambulance service was almost completed.
The arrangement continued whereby the basic general training of all volunteers in
the ambulance section of the Council's Division of the Civil Defence Corps was given
by the metropolitan borough councils. On completion of this preliminary training
further instruction is given by the Council and considerable progress was made during
1952.
The main emphasis has continued to be placed on first aid, in which a very satisfactory
proportion of volunteers attained pass standard in the theoretical and practical examinations
at the conclusion of their courses. A comprehensive course of training for instructors
in the duties of the ambulance section, which was also attended by senior members of
the Council's administrative staff who would have operational responsibilities in war,
was held in the early part of the year and the instructors who qualified then undertook
the further training of those volunteers who were qualified in first aid.
Ambulance section and first-aid training is undertaken at 7 ambulance stations
throughout London and, where there is considerable demand for facilities in any
particular area which is not immediately adjacent to a training station, additional
premises are utilised.
The number of volunteers remained inadequate, having regard to the heavy responsibilities
which would face the ambulance service in London in war. A house to house
canvass designed to arouse interest in, and obtain recruits for, civil defence was successful
in securing some increase in numbers but it is essential to bring about a considerable
expansion of trained volunteers if the service in London is to be adequate in any national
emergency. I am pleased to report that in this, as in other matters relating to civil defence
training, there is the closest co-operation between the officers of the Council and those
of the metropolitan borough councils.
Statistics
The statistics for the directly provided service are divided into two sections—Accident
and General.
The Accident section statistics include not only street accidents and other emergencies
but also the bulk of maternity removals and the conveyance of analgesia apparatus to
women being confined at home.
The following tables show :
(i) comparative statistics for 1938 (the last full year before the war); 1947 (the
last full year before the inception of the National Health Service) and subsequent
years for both sections of the directly provided service and for 1948 and subsequent
years for the agency and supplementary services.
(ii) an analysis of the Accident section work for 1952 and a comparative analysis
for 1951;