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83
Ambulance Stations.— No addition has been made to the
number of Ambulance Stations, but the Local Government
Board have approved plans for the enlargement of the
Western Station . (Seagrave Road, Fulham), to such an
extent as to place its accommodation on a level with the
other stations, at an estimated cost of £3500.
Cost of the Ambulance Services.—The total payments
made during the year were, for the Land Service
£7,152 8s. I Id., and for the River Service £4,019 17s. 4d.:
total £ I1,172 6s. 3d.
Regulations for the removal of persons suffering from
infectious disease are printed as an appendix to the report.
At the request of the Managers, and with your Vestry's
approval, I recently sent a copy of these regulations to the
several medical practitioners in this parish, over three
hundred in number.
SMALL-POX HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION.
The Royal Commission (1882). in one of their " practical
recommendations," proposed that provision should be made
of sites and buildings which could without difficulty be made
capable of receiving 2100, or, by special exertion, 27£)0 smallpox
patients. The actual accommodation falls far below the
smaller of these totals, consisting as it does of some 350 beds
at the Hospital Ships (which are always maintained in a
state of readiness for use), a few beds at three of the London
hopitals (beds for exceptional patients, and which the
Asylums Board will not suffer to be occupied except in case
of urgent necessity), and 800 beds at Darenth, viz., BOO for
convalescing patients at the Gore Farm Hospital, and 200
for acute cases in the associated Infirmary; the administrative
block being adequate for the needs of 1000 patients.
The Darenth estate, moreover, is always available upon
emergency for the erection of huts, tents, &c., equal to anv
probable demand for accommodation.