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The function of this Home is to give illegitimate children
a chance of survival and the mothers are kept in the Home
doing the light work of the Home for six or seven months.
When they leave, situations are found for them, if possible,
where the child can be taken. A grant of £50 was made by
the Council towards the funds of the Home.
Ambulance Facilities, (a) Infectious cases. Under the
Public Health (London) Act, persons in London suffering from
certain notifiable diseases may be conveyed to hospital and
treated in a hospital of the Metropolitan Asylums Board
and persons suffering from any dangerous infectious disease
may be conveyed by ambulance to other places on payment.
(b) For Non-Infectious and Accident Cases. The Medical
Officer of Health in his Annual Report for 1922, drew attention
to the fact that the ambulance service available for Woolwich
was inadequate and in particular referred to the service of the
London County Council. It is pleasing to record that during
1923 the London County Council resolved to establish an
ambulance station in Woolwich and all the services for which
their ambulances are available will no doubt then be extended
to Woolwich. The ambulance service of the London County
Council was established in 1915 in order to deal at all times
with persons suffering from accidents in the street and in
public places, and subsequently it was extended to include
the removal, in certain circumstances, of maternity cases, to
hospital, but it is not in ordinary circumstances available,
or intended for the removal of persons suffering from
illness in a private house. At the present time the nearest
ambulance station to Woolwich is in Lee High Road, Lewisham,
nearly four miles away from the thickly populated
part of the Borough. It was found during a test period by
the London County Council that an average call time of 8.7
minutes was obtained for the whole of London, whereas
the average call time for Woolwich was 14.5 minutes, the