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11.
AIR RAID CASUALTIES.
Of the air raid casualties dealt with during the year, 75 per cent of
the admissions were due to a single incident - that which occurred at West Hendon.
This incident taxed to the uttermost the facilities of the
Hospital, owing to the fact that this was the hospital nearest to the scene of
the bombing, and within a few minutes over 30 cases, the majority of them
seriously injured, were admitted. This necessitated all further casualties being
re-directed to other hospitals. Extra medical assistance was drafted into the
Hospital and the whole of the nursing staff - including the fever nurses - turned
out to assist and worked continuously until all the cases admitted had been dealt
with.
TRANSFERRED CIVILIAN SICK.
The flow of genito-urinary cases from St. Paul's Hospital has been
maintained throughout the year. All cases admitted required operation of a
rather serious nature which has necessitated a prolonged stay in hospital, This
work, which is onerous and demands a high standard cf nursing, is an integral part
of the Emergency Medical Services scheme, necessitated by war-time conditions.
Many of the beds in the Central London Hospitals, to which these patients would
normally have been admitted, are no longer available, either as the result of
bombing or evacuation of the hospitals, or because of the appropriation of beds as
a reserve for service or civilian casualties.
HOUSING.
Housing inspection has in the main been carried out as a result of
complaints and from entry as a consequence of following up infectious diseases,
verminous conditions, etc. The total number cf houses inspected for defects
either under the Public Health or Housing Acts, was 970 and of that number 554
were found not to be in all respects fit for human habitation.
By the end of the year the defects in 504 of these had been remedied. The
situation regarding overcrowding is somewhat obscure in that there has been an
unusual movement of population with consequent sub-letting, but much of this
appears to be of a temporary character with a consequent alteration in the
situation from time to time.