London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Leyton 1946
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Leyton]
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15
Source of New Cases :—
Referred by Hospitals 34
Referred by General Medical Practitioners 241
Referred by Council's Medical Staff 132
Contacts 256
663
The following table gives particulars of the cases transported in Council ambulances during the year :—
| Accidents | 326 |
| Taken ill in street | 178 |
| Maternity | 599 |
| Attempted suicide | 6 |
| Transfers to and from hospitals | 967 |
| 2,076 |
The mileage covered during the year was 13,154.
It will be seen that the most frequent calls made in the Council's
ambulances are (a) for the transfer of patients to and from hospitals,
and (b) for the transport of expectant mothers to hospitals for
confinement. A large proportion of both these categories are not
stretcher cases, and it is obviously uneconomic and unnecessary to
provide ambulances for their transport. Your Council therefore
decided to acquire a new sitting-case car (a 12 h.p. four-seater) for
such sitting cases; and, although the car was ordered in May, it
had not been delivered by the end of this year.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT FACILITIES.
In my last Annual Report I had occasion to deal with the
appalling conditions under which Leyton residents had to travel to
and from L ondon, and to draw attention to the fact that overcrowded
public transport vehicles were a most fruitful source of
respiratory infection. The extension of the Central London
Underground Railway to Leyton and Leytonstone should result in
a welcome relief to travellers by train; and it is hoped that the
improved railway service will have an appreciable effect in diminishing
the length of the queues of travellers by bus and train.