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provided assistance were aged and chronic sick. Again efforts were made to provide
service to prevent children having to be taken into care whilst preparation of a scheme
began for the training and employment of selected home helps to work with health
visitors in the homes of families in danger of breaking up.
Prophylaxis
The number 01 primary diphtheria immunisations and reinforcing doses, respectively
34,529 and 30,850, were considerably lower during 1955 than in the previous year
because the service was interrupted owing to the incidence of poliomyelitis. The
estimated percentage of children 0-4 years who had at any time been immunised was
at the end of the year about 54 per cent.
Whooping cough immunisation also suffered a reduction as the result of a withdrawal
of facilities during the poliomyelitis epidemic.
During 1955 the rate for children vaccinated during the first year of life was approximately
50 per cent, of the annual live births, the number of children vaccinated last
year showed a decline for the first time for some years.
The importance both of diphtheria immunisation and of vaccination cannot be
too strongly emphasised. There can be no doubt that these protective measures have
played their part in reducing the toll of both diseases and so have contributed to the
present situation in which parents who have had no experience of either disease at first
hand and in most cases who have heard little about them from their own parents are
apt to scout the danger or to be indifferent to it. There remains much to be done in
this field and this is particularly true with regard to diphtheria immunisation.
The London
Ambulance
Service
The London Ambulance Service with its ancillary services removed considerably
more than a million patients in journeys approaching in total 6¼ million miles. During
the rail strike in May/June up to 3,000 patients a day were dealt with by the general
section whilst the normal accident service was maintained.
Following discussion early in the year between the authorities concerned as to the
responsibility for the payment of rail fares, the number of patients for whose fares the
Council pays decreased notably. In 1954 free rail transport was provided for 5,867
patients, the corresponding number in 1955 was 3,466.
The second new ambulance station since the war became available and slightly
relieved pressure upon the accident section, but the total number of accident calls
showed an increase on the previous year. Street accidents alone at which an ambulance
was required increased by 2,056 to 17,338.
On 10th October, 1956, the administrative and operation headquarters, hitherto
separate, were housed under one roof; this should greatly facilitate the operation of
the service, and was marked by the uninterrupted functioning of the central control
room.
Mental
health
services
For the first time since 1948 the number of persons referred as allegedly of unsound
mind showed a slight decline.
The number of mentally defective persons awaiting institutional care continued
to increase and at one point during the year it reached 250. By 31st December, 1955,
it had been reduced to 230; this, however, was still substantially greater than the 205
awaiting admission a year earlier.
A hostel for twelve mentally deficient girls from special schools for the educationally
subnormal who have no suitable homes was opened in the autumn and by the end of
the year six girls were accommodated there under guardianship. A scheme was introduced
for placing mentally deficient boys for practical training under guardianship at
Wallingford Farm training colony.
As part of the provision made for the occupation and training of mental defectives
an industrial training centre, the first in London, was opened in September for 20 male
adult mental defectives.
School
health
service
The percentage of the school population found on inspection to be 'verminous'
has again declined. For 1955 it was 2.2 per cent. as against 8 per cent. in 1948.
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