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THE HEALTH OF BARKING
Dr. Doyne Bell works closely with the consulting obstetrician in overseeing
the health of the infants in Upney Hospital.
Skin Clinic.
The misery which skin diseases cause is often out of proportion to the economic
distress or morbid changes which accompany them. Often puzzling in their
origin and resistant to treatment, it is important to have a frequent consultative
service locally. The further a patient has to go for advice or treatment the less
likely is he to get that advice or treatment.
A comparative record of the work of the clinic is shown in Appendix B,
Table X.
Scabies. This disease, as I pointed out last year, is essentially a family disease
spread by close contact, most commonly by the sharing of a bed. As most will be
aware scabies gave rise to a serious wartime problem, being at that time of serious
epidemic proportions. I am glad to be able to report to you that the notifications
of the disease fell to forty-two per cent. of the 1946 figure.
All close contacts whether they have a rash or complain of itching at night
or not should accept treatment which is simple, safe and sure.
Relevant statistics appear in Appendix B, Table XI.
Ambulance Service.
It is of interest to call attention to the fact that three years before the operation
of the National Health Service Act, 1946, the Corporation have provided a free
ambulance service. An examination of the number of calls for each of the years
given in the table below will show that during the first year of the free service the
increase in the number of calls was not substantial, but as this free service became
better known there was an upsurge so that during the last year under review the
increase represented an additional demand of two hundred per cent. over the year
immediately preceding the introduction of the free service. This information
will be instructive to many authorities who are for the first time giving similar
service.
Year Calls Year Calls
1944 4,502 1946 9,045
1945 5,532 1947 12,660
In addition to the ambulance service, the Council added to the vehicle strength
of the ambulance station one sitting case car for the transport of midwives when
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