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67
The Hospital and Ambulance service is admirably simple and
perfect in operation. It would appear, moreover, that the Local
Government Board acquiesce in the arrangements generally, for
in a letter with reference to the regulations made by the
Managers, they say, "as regards the removal of paupers . . .
an order from a Relieving Officer or the Master of a Workhouse
is requisite;" even this, however, "might be given after the
patient has been received into the hospital" if "the procuring
of such order prior to removal would lead to undue delay in
dealing with the case." I may be permitted to mention that itis
now more than four years since I first proposed to the Asylums
Board to make their ambulances available, for the removal of infectious
cases to other hospitals than those under their own
control, and I note, therefore, with peculiar satisfaction, that more
than all I dared to hope for at that time, has now been brought
about by the action of the Managers in giving effect to the
provisions of the new Act. Only one more thing appears to
be necessary, viz., a clause to make it penal in the Metropolis
to make use knowingly of a public vehicle, cab or omnibus,
for the conveyance of any person suffering from a dangerous
infectious disorder; such a clause would be entirely reasonable,
seeing that the practice is at once full of danger to the public
and altogether unnecessary and unjustifiable. An opportunity
for introducing such a clause will be afforded by the Public Health
London (Consolidation) Bill in the present Session.
In my last Annual Report, I referred to a Synopsis of various
matters relating to the extension of the duties and powers of the
Managers with respect to infectious disease, which were still
under the consideration of the Local Government Board, having
been prepared by direction of the General Purposes Committee
of the Asylums Board at the latter end of the year 1888, and a copy
thereof forwarded to the President of the Local Government Board,
" for his information and consideration in connection with any
Bill affecting the duties and responsibilities of the Managers,
which it may be his intention to submit to Parliament." This
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