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84
is proposed to establish an ambulance station at each of the
hospitals, and a report by the Board.s Architect, with plans for
a station at the “Western District" (late Fulham) Hospital,
was submitted to the Managers by the Committee of that
hospital at their meeting held 6th January last. The plans having
been approved were forwarded to the Local Government Board
and obtained their sanction. It is intended to provide
stabling for 15 horses, coach.house for 12 ambulances, with all
necessary accommodation for drivers, nurses, &c., on a site
220ft. by 76ft., and at an approximate cost of some £4,500.
The scheme seems well adapted to meet the requirements of the
case, but its execution will involve the loss of some thirty of the
beds now available for the use of the sick. The Managers moreover
I may mention, appointed a Special Committee to elaborate a
scheme for the transmission of the sick from their homes to the
hospitals, whose report, approved generally by the Managers,
was subsequently transmitted to the Board for their information
and consideration. I have perused this report, the recommendations
of which appear well calculated, if strictly carried out,
as doubtless they will be, to put the ambulance service in the
Metropolis on a satisfactory footing. Whether the adoption of
the plan will, in the long run, prove more costly than the present
system, under which nearly all the Sanitary and the Poor Law
Authorities have provided a more or less satisfactory service of
ambulances, time alone can show.
Increased Facilities for Removal of the Infectious
Sick.—In my annual report for 1880 I referred to the action
taken by the Board of Guardians in evidence of their desire to
facilitate the removal of the sick: in an instructional letter
addressed to the Relieving Officers, their Clerk, Mr. J. H.
llutherglen, wrote as follows:—
“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 t© hospitals of cases of infectious
“disease, have directed me to instruct the Relieving Officers to