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financial recovery of the Country. As the need for more beds,
and particularly cubicle beds, is now very pressing it is hoped that
the extension will be begun at an early date.
The proposals of the Middlesex County Council for the grouping
of the existing isolation hospitals so as efficiently to serve the needs
of the whole of the districts in the county are still under consideration
without apparently making much headway. The
proposals need not interfere with any suggestions for the extension
of the Chiswick and Ealing Isolation Hospital.
2. Smallpox Hospital.—As previously recorded, arrangements
were made some years ago by the Middlesex County Council at
the request of the local authorities in the county by which cases
of smallpox occurring in the county are isolated and treated at
the smallpox hospitals of the London County Council. These
arrangements are still in operation.
3. Maternity Hospital.—This hospital, which has accommodation
for 22 beds, serves the needs of the Boroughs of Baling
and of Brentford and Chiswick. In 1931 the Hospitals Committee
decided to extend the hospital by providing 16 more beds and making
new labour ward provision. This extension has been held up
in the same way as that of the Isolation Hospital. Nevertheless,
as the demand for beds grows more insistent every day, all the
available beds being booked three months at least in advance,
it seems desirable that the matter should be considered an urgent
one and that the real need of beds should be represented to the
Ministry of Health.
4. Hospital Provision for Children.—At the King Edward
Memorial Hospital, where a children's ward provides 12 beds,
children under five years of age can be treated when referred for
in-patient treatment from the Health Centres. The Hanwell
Cottage Hospital has also a small children's ward of three beds.
5. Other Hospitals.—The King Edward Memorial Hospital,
a voluntary hospital, has in addition to the beds for children already