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20
The accommodation for scarlet fever patients was not
always available when it was wanted. During May and
June its absence was rather critical, for the epidemic in
Mitcham was then increasing rapidly, and again in the last
month of the year it occurred inconveniently. The cause on
both occasions was, it appears, an outbreak of measles in the
wards. There have been two or three "return cases," that is,
cases where the return home of a child from hospital has
been succeeded in a few days by another attack in the same
family. These "return cases" may be described as the bane
of all scarlet fever hospitals, however well managed, but it is
sufficient to say that the proportion here was very low as
compared with some other hospitals.
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add that the accommodation
which the Council has secured at this hospital has been,
notwithstanding the expense, a source of grateful satisfaction
to all, while the patients have never done otherwise than
express themselves as delighted with the care and attention
bestowed upon them.
The three small-pox patients were also treated in hospital,
the first two by private agreement at the Highgate Small-pox
Hospital in London, and the other, at the Council's expense,
at the recently-arranged hospital at South Mimms, Barnet.
In the latter case the patient, who had a severe attack, was
safely conveyed a distance of some 35 miles.
The ambulance which the Council purchased in 1895 was
used for all cases removed at the Council's expense, and has
proved satisfactory and very comfortable. It will be desirable,
however, to procure another later on when the hospital is
completed.
The routine preventive and precautionary measures
described in previous reports have been pursued steadily.
These involve visits and revisits to every infected house, and