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(c) That, having regard to the probable requirements for the accommodation
of scarlet-fever cases, the Ambulance Committee be instructed
to discontinue, for the present, the transfer of enteric fever
convalescents to the Northern Hospital.
The emergency contemplated in the above resolutions arrived
in October, and the Gore Farm Hospital at Darenth was opened
on the 14th, and by the 17th one hundred patients had been
drafted from the Town hospitals.
How necessary the relief thus afforded had become, may be
inferred from the fact that on the 16th of October, when the
Gore Farm Hospital had received 75 patients, the beds available
for the reception of scarlet fever cases in London were 100 only,
irrespective of 72 reserve beds at the South-western Hospital.
No fewer than 883 cases of scarlet fever had been admitted at the
Town hospitals in the four weeks ended on November 1st,
making, with the admissions in the two previous four-weekly
periods, 2412 cases admitted in twelve weeks. The total
accommodation at the five Town hospitals for all classes of fever,
and for special cases of small-pox, being under 2000, and there
being close on 200 cases of enteric-fever under treatment in
wards which could be used for no other purpose; scarlet-fever,
moreover, being a disease which demands a lengthened period
of isolation, it will be understood that the Gore Farm Hospital
was opened not a day too soon, and how fortunate the Metropolis
was in having this resource so judiciously utilised by the
Managers. All of the appointments of officers and staif were
"temporary," the Committee for the Hospital (being the Smallpox
Hospitals Committee) hoping that it would not be required
for more than a few months. It may be mentioned, as an
illustration of the vigour with which the Managers attack
difficulties, so as to keep accommodation in advance of the needs
of the Metropolis, that the order for furnishing and fitting not
having been given by the Committee until the 30th September,
the Hospital was opened for reception of patients on the 14th
October. The Hospital remained open until February, 1891,