London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

London County Council 1964

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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Table: Table (ii)— General section

Table (ii)— General section

19601961196219631964
Average mileage per patient3 833-894041407
Average mileage per journe8118178-281812
Patients carried per 100 journeys212210208199199

Table: Table (iii)— Accident section

Table (iii)— Accident section

YearNumber of calls receivedAmbulance not requiredAverage time to incident (in minutes)A verage time from incident to hospital (in minutes)
1960109,5519,6446.86.4
1961114,93510,3507.06.2
1962117,02010,4207.06.5
1963125,18311,5847.06.5
1964129,45212,7187.06.3

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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.

Table: Table (iv)— Accident section—Source of calls

Table (iv)— Accident section—Source of calls

19601961196219631964
Public and L.C.C. staff76,70581,75584,26188,94793,506
Police16,50516,75316,39616,93717,599
Midwives*326339307234162
Doctors7,5227,9648,54911,22510,243
Hospitals2,1862,0451,9332,0001,798
Railway officials2,8962,8682,6542,6902,808
Local callsf893788827779162
London Fire Brigade1,055789596687761
Out county1,4631,6341,4971,6841,813
Total calls109,551114,935117,020125,183129,452

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* Fewer calls for gas-aad-air analgesia apparatus because of the introduction of trilene apparatus which
is portable by midwives.
† Made personally at ambulance stations.
Operational control and communication—The volume of work undertaken by the Service
increased much more rapidly than it was possible to increase the staff and vehicles and
while the volume of work undertaken in 1964 was two and a half times greater than in
1947 the staff had increased by less than 50 per cent.
To enable the Service to cope with these dramatic increases every effort had to be made
to improve the efficiency of the Service, much of which depends on efficient communication.
To this end radio control was introduced in 1956, at first on an experimental basis. It was
soon clear that it had a valuable part to play in ambulance control; it was extended to the
whole accident section and subsequently by progressive stages to the general service, the
last stage in the development being made in 1964/65. Telex was introduced in 1963,
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