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GENERAL PROVISION OF HEALTH SERVICES -
HOSPITALS.- General Hospitals: The arrangements set out
in the Annual Reports for 1930 and 1938 relating to
the provision of general and special hospital accommodation,
' together with the provision of maternity beds
for the inhabitants of Southgate remain unaltered,
except for a slight reduction in the total number of
beds available, due to enemy action. In this connection
it can no longer be said that the provision of hospital
beds for the area is satisfactory. It need scarcely
be stated that- the war held up hospital development
schemes, which by now should have solved many, if not
all, of our difficulties. It will be equally obvious
that the hiatus created by six years of war has not
yet been filled.
The need for additional hospital beds is too
well known to require elaboration, but it is to be
hoped that the plans which had to be temporarily
shelved will now be put into operation with as little
delay as possible. This particularly applies to the
need for maternity beds. With the rising birth rate
and the general deterioration in housing conditions,
the position is rapidly becoming desperate, and, by
the end of 1945, had presented a problem of the very
first magnitude.
The schemes now under consideration,.and which
are intended to ease the critical situation, do not
come within the scope of this report. It is none the
less imperative that nothing be allowed to stand in
the way of their speedy completion.
Isolation "Hospital: As Whitherto, essential work at
the Isolation Hospital was not neglected during
the year.
It was very quickly appreciated that, to allow
the Isolation Hospital to fall into a state of
disrepair, would be the worst possible economy. Such
a short-sighted policy has fortunately been avoided,
and it can truthfully be stated that the Isolation
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