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ultimately 120 beds were available. Further increases were
approved by the Council, namely, a small surgical unit and
additional cubicle 'accommodation. Unfortunately the outbreak
of the last war deferred this development indefinitely.
As to the future, there is little doubt that Hospital provision
should be on a wider basis than that limited by Borough
boundaries. As a small unit it has administrative drawbacks,
it does not function ideally as a training school for student
nurses, and it is uneconomical. These facts were fully appreciated
by this Council and for some time all cases of infectious
disease from Wembley were admitted to the Hendon isolation
Hospital, and a considerable number of those occurring in
Harrow.
While therefore the proposed administration of Hospitals
by Regional Hospital Boards covering ia wide area is probably
the ideal ultimate development, it should be said here that this
Council have provided a modern and well-equipped Hospital
which will, I believe, prove of real value to the new Authority.
Admissions to the Isolation Hospital during 1947 showed
a further increase over the previous year, 1,150 new cases
having been received as against 812 in 1946. This was the
first full year during which the arrangements for the admission
of Wembley cases had been in operation, and the effect
of this, combined with a fair proportion of oases from the
Harrow district, was a considerably increased admission rate.
The numbers admitted would have been higher had more beds
been available, but shortage of nursing staff has made it
impossible to have the full accommodation of the hospital
available.
A comparison of the admissions, deaths and discharges
with those of the two preceding years is shown below, and is
followed by a table of admissions and a list of final diagnoses.