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41
Increased Facilities for Removal to Hospital of Infectious
Sick.—Having had occasion to meet the House Committee
of the Board of Guardians in November, I took advantage of the
opportunity to invite a continuance of the valuable assistance the
Guardians had so long rendered to your Vestry, and my Department,
in getting sufferers from infectious disease, and willing
to go to hospital, removed by their staff of Officers; and I pointed
out the desirability of having all such cases removed, at any cost,
and on strictly economical grounds, viz.: as a mode of preventing
the spread of infectious diseases, and therefore of saving the rates
which it is one of the functions of the Guardians to administer.
I submitted, that, if the Guardians would instruct their officers
not to apply for payment for the maintenance of persons in the
hospitals, especially as many parents, at the instance of the Inspectors,
consented to the removal of their children simply for the sake
of isolation, and therefore with the object of preventing the spread
of disease, the efforts of my Department in this direction would
be greatly facilitated. It had come to my knowledge that in some
cases the expectation of having to pay for maintenance of children
in hospital had acted as a deterrent when parents were otherwise
willing to let patients be removed—although these were so little
"ill," as not on account of their own state of health to require
hospital treatment, however necessary their isolation might be on
sanitary grounds. The Guardians at once complied with the
request I had ventured to make, and caused an instructional letter
to be addressed by their clerk to the several Relieving Officers in
the following terms:—
"The Guardians having recently had urged upon them by the
"Medical Officer of Health the importance of facilitating
"in every way possible, the immediate removal to hos"pitals
of cases of infectious disease, have directed me
"to instruct the Relieving Officers to abstain generally
"from taking any steps for obtaining paymen incases
"sent to the Metropolitan District Fever and Small pox
" Hospitals."