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99
Other Removals.—Under the powers possessed by the
Managers, 404 infectious sick persons were conveyed in the
ambulances to other places than the Managers' hospitals ;
including 191 to the London Fever Hospital, Liverpool Road,
Islington : 215 of the cases were Scarlet fever, 38 Erysipelas,
25 Diphtheria, and 4 Small-pox. The Managers received
£126 for this work, including £22 12s. 6d. in respect of the
services of nurses.
Reference is made to the increasing proportion of admissions
to the hospitals to total cases occurring in the Metropolis.
Compulsory Notification has afforded a means of
gauging the relative proportions of these numbers; and it
appears that in 1892, about one-half of the cases notified were
treated in the Managers' Hospitals. This proportion is likely
to increase : the Committee observe, therefore, that the permanent
accommodation at the Managers' disposal will have to
be largely augmented, if the growing demands of the Metropolis
are to be adequately met. They think that the segregation
of such large numbers of patients may be expected to
result in a material reduction in the prevalence of fever, and a
corresponding permanent lowering of the annual death-rate—"
indeed, such results appear already to be taking place." It
would seem, however, to be the fact, that the case-mortality in
hospital-treated cases is unduly high, compared with that of
home-treated cases, a fact which deserves more attention than
it has hitherto received.
The Committee have nothing special to report with
respect to the three Ambulance Stations, nor with respect to
the River Service, Wharves, etc., in the number and position
of which no change has to be recorded. The distance run,
collectively, by the three Ambulance steamers, and the Pinnace,
was about 11,000 miles : they conveyed 1,389 patients and
other passengers. When Small-pox threatened to become
epidemic, the Managers temporarily appointed a Medical