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63
REGULATIONS FOR THE REMOVAL OF SMALL-POX
AND FEVER PATIENTS.
I have referred above to the increased facilities afforded
by the Managers for the removal of the infectious sick, viz.,
upon the application of Medical men, Hospital Surgeons, and
Sanitary Officials, new regulations having been framed by the
Board, in June, 1887, with the obvious, if not expressed, intention
of giving effect to their resolution to facilitate the admittance
to their hospitals of patients suffering from infectious disease,
without unnecessary formalities.
Regulations 2 and 3 read as follows:—
"2 Every application (i.e., for admission) must state the name, age,
and full address of the patient, from what disease suffering,
and in case of fever the particular kind of fever and also
the name of the person making the application, and the
Parish he represents.
"Applications which do not give these particulars will be referred
back to the applicant for the required information to be
furnished.
"3. The Medical Certificate or Order (i.e., of a Relieving Officer or
Master of a Workhouse) for the admission of the patient
must be handed to the nurse in charge of the Ambulance.
Should neither of these documents be handed to the nurse,
the patient will not be removed."
Regulation 3 was necessary for the security of the Board
and its officers; Regulation 2 provides, so far as public officials—
Medical Officers of Health, Sanitary Inspectors, etc.— are concerned,
all the facilities that could be desired. Under this
regulation we are now enabled to (and do) remove patients
without troubling the Relieving Officer for his order, or the
District Medical Officer for his certificate. The certificate of anv
registered medical man is now accepted, legally (as in 1875 I proposed
that it should be), as evidence of the nature of the disease,
and any person suffering from an infectious disease is now admitted
to hospital upon the "application" of a registered medical practitioner,
provided that the requirements of Regulation 2 are
complied with and the medical certificate is forthcoming.