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51
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possible superseded," has been carried out by the establishment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
authorized to provide by Section 6 of the Diseases Prevention
(Metropolis) Act, 1883. Kensington patients are removed by
the ambulance staff at the Western Station, Seagrave Road,
Fulham. Between 8 a.m., and 8 p.m., on week-days, cases for
removal are reported at the Managers' Central Offices, Norfolk
Street, Strand, 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 Managers have acquired or constructed three Wharves
for the embarkation 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 thought
desirable to bring it into use. Owing to the great distance
between the Western Hospital and the districts allocated to it,