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22
SECTION B.
GENERAL PROVISION OF HEALTH SERVICES
FOR THE AREA.
AMBULANCE SERVICE.
The Ambulance Depot is at Masons Hill, Bromley, and the
service is operated by the County Council as part of the combined
scheme for the whole of the County.
During the past year the ambulances at this Depot covered
48,100 miles and conveyed 7,917 patients.
LABORATORY SERVICES.
There has been no change in this service during the year.
The Kent County Council provide a Laboratory service for
the whole of the County through their Laboratory at Maidstone.
Considerable assistance has also been rendered by Dr.
Griffiths and the staff of the Laboratory at Farnborough
Hospital in the examination of and reporting upon specimens of
an urgent nature which it was not possible to send to Maidstone
for examination.
The examination of emergency diphtheria swabs is carried
out, as previously, at the West Kent Isolation Hospital, and the
liaison here is most satisfactory.
The following swabs, specimens, etc., were sent for
tion and report during the year:—
Hsemolytic Streptococci 495
Diphtheria 43
Specimens of blood (for Rhesus factor, Wassermann. Widal,
Kahn and Haemoglobin Tests) 452
Food Samples, Water Samples, etc. 569
Miscellaneous 16
SUPPLY OF INSULIN.
During the first half of the year, financial assistance was
given to seven necessitous diabetic patients, by the free or
part-cost provision of insulin. This service is now incorporated
in the State Health Scheme.
NURSING IN THE HOME.
The Bromley and District Nursing Association, and the
Hayes and West Wickham Nursing Association, both of whom
for many years gave yeoman service in the provision of nursing
facilities for the sick in the home, ceased to function on 5th July,
1948.
The Home Nursing Service is now incorporated in the Health
Service of the County Council.