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52
£2 17s. 6d. in respect of the services of nurses; the charge for
an ambulance being five shillings, and for the attendance of a
nurse half-a-crown.
The need for increased accommodation at the Western
Ambulance Station, demonstrated by the strain upon the land
service in 1887, and confirmed by the experience of each succeeding
year, has now been recognised, and the question of the
practicability of enlarging the station upon the present site was
referred to the architects, with the result that they have recently
reported that the necessary extension can be made. The question
of the desirability of erecting an Ambulance Station at the Northwestern
Hospital (at Hampstead) is under the consideration of
the Committee.
River Service.—Notwithstanding the dense fogs and the
blocking of the river with ice at the end of the year, all requisite
service was conducted with punctuality and safety. The three
ambulance steamers ran collectively 4000 miles, and conveyed
428 patients and other passengers, besides stores, &c., to and
from the Hospital Ships at Long Reach.
Fever Patients.—At the commencement of the year there
were 1820 patients in the Managers' six hospitals, viz., scarlet fever,
1568; diphtheria, 115; typhus, 9; enteric fever, 119: other
diseases, 9. By the end of March the number had fallen to 1220,
subsequently falling gradually to the lowest number for the year
1160, at the end of May. At the middle of June the numbers
began to ascend, and by 12th July had risen to 1451—on which
day the Managers authorised the General Purposes Committee,
if and when they considered such a step necessary, to instruct the
Small-pox Hospitals Committee to fit up, furnish, and open the
Brick-hut Hospital at Gore Farm, Darenth, for the reception of
convalescent scarlet fever patients. By the 30th September, the
number of patients in the hospitals having risen to 1985, the
General Purposes Committee gave instructions for the hospital to
be opened on such date as the Small-pox Hospitals Committee