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17
All patients from Woolwich were conveyed by the Asylums
Board Ambulances to the Small-pox Station at Rotherhithe,
there they were examined by the Board's Medical Officer and
if the diagnosis was confirmed were removed by the Board's
steam vessels to Long Beach.
15. Removal to Hospital. Where the diagnosis was not
confirmed by the Board's Medical Officer the case was either
detained at the wharf for a few days for observation or else
returned to the patient's home. On certain occasions a large
number of patients had to be detained for several hours (once
for 24 hours) on account of fog preventing the sailing of the
Ambulance steamer. The patients on this occasion did not
accumulate beyond the number that could be accommodated
in the wharf shelter and the Ambulance steamer, but if the
fog bad continued the removal of patients from their houses
would have necessarily ceased until the lifting of fog enabled
the steamers to sail. The Managers of the Asylums Board
regarded this as so serious a contingency that they considered
the incurring of a heavy expenditure for the purpose of
providing additional horse ambulances and a half-way resting
station to enable patients in an emergency to be conveyed by
road to Dartford.
The Managers have also been pushing forward the provision
of Small-pox Hospitals on a large scale so that (as stated by
Dr. Dudfield in his monthly report, dated July 17th) shortly
there will be accommodation for 4,000 Small-pox patients—
more than double the number under treatment at any one
time during the current epidemic.
I am informed by the kindness of the Asylums Board's
Accountant that the total expenditure for Small-pox
Ambulances and Hospitals during the year ending Lady