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Perhaps the most important influence on the work of the Service resulted from a conference
of representatives of members and staff of the Council, the four Metropolitan
Regional Hospital Boards, the London Executive Council and the Teaching Hospitals
Association. Meetings at hospital group level followed so that, with the close co-operation
of hospital transport officers and of specially appointed uniformed visiting officers, there
might be a more economic movement of ambulances and some reduction in the calls upon
the Service.
While it is gratifying to note that these co-operative efforts have met with some success
in controlling the demand for ambulance transport, there is no reason to expect a general
decline in the volume of work falling upon the Service. Indeed, the continuing development
of out-patient treatment and of day hospitals and geriatric units, the increasing age of the
population and the quickening turnover of hospital beds are all likely to result in the need
for more and more ambulance transport.

notes—1. These numbers include some urgent parturition cases and patients removed by general section
ambulances when passing the scene of an accident.
2. Some accident calls are answered by vehicles from general stations, usually when an ambulance
from the nearest accident station is not available.

* Fewer calls for gas-and-air analgesia apparatus because of the introduction of trilene apparatus which
is portable by midwives.
†Made personally at ambulance stations.
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