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and the South Wharf, at Rotherhithe, to which the patients are
at present sent for embarkation, the number of miles travelled by
the ambulances is excessive.
RIVER AMBULANCE SERVICE.
The Managers possess in their three Ambulance steamers,
Red Cross, Maltese Cross, and Albert Victor, together with the
steam pinnace Swallow and the steam launch Marguerite, a fleet
equal to all probable demands. The demands, however, as
indicated by the number of admissions to the hospitals, are very
unequal at different periods of the year, and in different years.
REPORT OF THE AMBULANCE COMMITTEE.
Arrangements in connexion with the transit of the sick,
between home and hospital, and back again, are under the control
of a Committee of the Asylums Board, whose Annual
Report states that in 1888, 5,114 Fever and Small-pox patients
were removed from their homes to the Board's Hospitals, as
compared with 6,456 in 1887. The average daily removals in
the first six months of the year were 15.4, and in the latter six
months 12.8, as compared with 6.7 and 29.1, respectively, in
1887. The average length of journey of the Fever patients
removed did not exceed 3½ miles. During the year, 107 persons
certified to be suffering from Small-pox were removed, 43
of whom were found not to have the disease, and were
accordingly taken back direct to their homes; the remaining
cases (64), in which the diagnosis was confirmed by a Medical
Superintendent in London, were conveyed to the Hospital Ships
at Long Reach. The Local Government Board approved of the
reception of Diphtheria cases on the 20th October. The first
removals took place on the 23rd October, and from that date to
the end of the year 96 sufferers from the disease were removed
to the Board's Hospitals. The transport of patients, by land and