View report page

12
GENERAL PROVISION OF HEALTH SERVICES FOR
THE AREA.
Hospitals provided or subsidised by the Local Authority or
by the County Council.
a. (1) Fever.
Rush Green Isolation Hospital is maintained by the Romford
Joint Hospital Board, which consists of representatives of the
Urban District Councils of Dagenham, Hornehurch, and Romford,
and the Rural District Council of Romford.
The accommodation at the Isolation Hospital was extended by
the addition of 100 beds. The formal opening of the extensions
took place on 28/2/31. These additional beds did not result in an
immediate extension of the available accommodation as the older
wards were in need of reconditioning. By the autumn, however,
the full complement of 150 beds was in use. The present aceom
modation consists of 121 beds in six wards and 29 beds in separate
cubicles.
The additional beds resulted in far fewer cases of scarlet fever
being treated at home than in the last few years. Out of 420 eases
notified, 273 were admitted to Rush Green Isolation Hospital, 39
to other hospitals and 108 were treated entirely at home.
The added accommodation, particularly the supplementing of
the cubicle beds, now permits of cases other than scarlet fever and
diphtheria being treated at the hospital. During the year, some
cases of erysipelas, pemphigus, puerperal fever and complicated
whooping cough and measles were admitted from this area.
(2) Smallpox.
The Joint Hospital Board has, with other districts, an arrangement
with the West Ham Corporation for the reception of smallpox
cases at Orsett Hospital. When there is no available accommodation
at this hospital, cases are admitted, by arrangement with the
London County Council, to Joyce Green Smallpox Hospital.
The agreement between the West Ham Corporation and the
neighbouring Authorities terminates early in 1932 with a result
that all these Authorities have to make alternative arrangements
for the isolation of smallpox cases. For the prevailing mild type of
disease, there seems no justification for making arrangement
different from those for the more common notifiable diseases which
are treated at the local Isolation Hospitals. Owing to the mildness
of the symptoms, Variola Minor is a disease much more diffcult to