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2. The Ewen Hall. This building can be made ready
at 24 hours' notice to receive 30 cases. Arrangements
have been made for an operating room, sleeping
accommodation for Nurses, and a ward kitchen to
be ready when required.
3. A private house in Bedford Avenue is also ready
with accommodation for patients.
Nursing will be undertaken by V.A.D. Nurses and a
staff of fully trained hospital Nurses.
Medical Officers have been appointed from the local
resident medical practitioners. No patients have yet been
admitted to any of these Hospitals.
Ambulance classes held in the neighbourhood have been
well attended, and many of the students have been successful
in the examinations held by the St. John Ambulance
Association.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The rate of Infantile Mortality for the past year was
46 per 1,000, as compared with 35 during 1913 and 86 in
1912. The Infantile Mortality for England and Wales was
105.
The average rate for the past 10 years has been 94 per
1,000.
The rate is calculated as the ratio of infant deaths to
births per 1,000.
The Notification of Births Act, 1907, has not been
adopted in this district.
Infantile Mortality has a variety of causes, among which
alcoholism, impure food and contamination of infants' food,
improper feeding, impure milk, insanitary conditions, and
overcrowding are noteworthy.
The very gratifying fall in the infantile death-rate
coincides with the elimination of insanitary property and
surroundings in which many of the children previously lived.
The workmen's dwellings, health visitor, increased knowledge
of infant feeding, and an increasing purity in the milk supply
have also been powerful factors.
Since the Infantile Mortality figures were made up the
following deaths have been allocated to this District by the
Registrar-General: 7 in the “Holy Infancy Babies' Hospital."