View report page

43
obvious necessity. At the same time it may he remarked
that there would be an advantage in having a convalescent
hospital for fever cases south of the Thames.
AMBULANCE SERVICE.
The recommendation of the Commission, " That the hospital
authorities should have entire control of the ambulances, by
which all other modes of conveyance should be as far as possible
superseded," has been, so far, carried out by the establishment
of Ambulance Stations at three of the Managers' Hospitals
(Eastern, South-Western, and Western), under the provisions
of Section 16, Poor Law Act, 1879. Small-pox patients are
taken down the river in Ambulance Steamers, specially built
or fitted for the purpose, embarking at Wharves which the
Managers were authorised to provide by Section 6, Diseases
Prevention (Metropolis) Act, 1883. KeDsington patients are
removed by the ambulance staff at the
Western Station, which has stabling for 15 horses, coachhouses
for as many vehicles, together with all necessary accommodation
for drivers, nurses, etc. Between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
on week-days, cases for removal are reported at the Managers'
Central Offices, these being in telephonic communication with
the Station. During the night, and on Sunday, application
for a patient's removal is forwarded direct to the Station.
From a report made by the Committee for the Western
Hospital we learn that the number of patients removed since the
opening of the Western Station in May, 1884, to the end of
April, 1885, amounted to 2,369. Owing to the great distance
between the Western Hospital and the districts allotted to it,
and the South (late Acorn) Wharf, to which the patients are at
present sent for embarcation, the number of miles travelled by
the ambulances is excessive. This will be obviated when the
West Wharf shall have been brought into use.
The ambidance service for the whole of London is now
practically in the hands of the Asylums Board. There are very
few private ambulances, and it is difficult to effect the removal of
c 2