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81
ASYLUMS BOARD AMBULANCE SERVICE.
The recommendation of the Royal Commission, that the
Asylums Board should have "entire control of the ambulances,
by which all other modes of conveyance should be as far as
possible superseded," has been carried out by the establishment
of Ambulance Stations at three of the Managers' Hospitals
(Eastern at Homerton, South-Eastern at Deptford, and
Western at Fulham), 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 of the Diseases Prevention
(Metropolis) Act, 1883. Kensington patients are removed by
the ambulance staff at the Western Station. 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
Ambulance Station.
WHARVES.
The Managershave acquired or constructed three Wharves
for the embarcation of patients, etc., named respectively, North,
South, and West. The North Wharf is at Blackwall, the
South Wharf at Rotherhithe.
The West Wharf, at Fulham, near Wandsworth Bridge,
at which, in the event of an epidemic of small-pox, Kensington
patients will embark for the voyage to the hospital ships at Long
Reach and the hospital at Darenth, but which is also intended
for the accommodation of the Western District generally, has
long since been completed. But hitherto it has not been found
necessary to bring it into use. Owing to the great distance between
the Western Hospital and the districts allocated to it, and
the South Wharf, at Rotherhithe, to which the patients are at
present sent for embarcation, the number of miles travelled by
the ambulances is excessive.