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43
AMBULANCE SERVICE
A. L. Hill, M.B.E..
Chief Ambulance Officer
During the year the Service was called upon to deal with
136,76 3 patients which necessitated 57,528 journeys and a mileage
of 490,886.
Compared with 1963 these figures show an increase of 6,372
patients (5%), 44,720 miles (10%), and 3,108 journeys (6%).
There were 18,711 patients conveyed to places outside the
Borough and on these journeys 167,301 miles were travelled,
which shows an increase of 1,704 patients and 20,160 miles.
The number of patients admitted to Hospitals and Nursing
Homes was 9,727 compared with 9,906 the previous year.
A total of 1,142 days sickness was recorded compared with
952 days during 1963. Twelve Driver-attendants resigned and
replacements were employed and trained, a further four men were
engaged owing to the increase in work.
A First Aid Training Course was held at Headquarter Station
and the thirty men who entered the examination passed. I would
like to express my thanks to Dr. Horner, Deputy Medical Officer
of Health, together with his colleagues who assisted him, for
their tuition and demonstrations to my personnel.
Lectures and demonstrations were given by my Officers to
various organizations in the Borough, mainly on mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation.
A Major Incident Exercise was held, with permission from
British Railways, in the tunnel adjacent to Coombe Road Railway
Station on Sunday, 13th December. This proved successful, with
Civil Defence, Police, Fire Brigade, and Hospitals working in
conjunction with the Ambulance Service to clear "casualties"
supplied by the Casualty Unit.
A conference was held following this exercise from which
considerable experience was gained.
For details of work carried out see Appendix Page 118.