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ceding four weeks. This decline was due to the fact that the
hospitals, being full, were unable to receive many cases that
should have been removed for isolation. Some of our own sick
were detained in their homes whilst awaiting the accommodation
created by the discharge or death of previous cases.
Applications for removal were made every day; but each
evening, for more than a fortnight, a telegram was received
from the Board's offices, intimating that no beds, or very few
beds, were available: so that on some days none, and on other
days only a portion, of our cases could be admitted. In
accordance with instructions received, the several applications
were renewed daily before noon, and in some instances as many
as five daily applications had to be made before individual
patients could be admitted. On and after September 16th, I
despatched a special messenger to the offices of the Board,
daily, after visitation of the patients to ascertain that they
were still in a fit condition to be removed, with the effect of
getting a larger proportion of the cases removed without delay.
On Sunday (25th) this course was adopted with the result that
all detained cases were admitted on that day : subsequently
there was less delay in effecting the removal of the sick. The
difficulty, however, did not wholly cease when the NorthEastern
Hospital was opened, on the last day dealt with in my
tenth four-weekly report, viz., Saturday, 8th October. In these
four weeks the notifications of scarlet fever cases attained the
maximum number of 3959, our contribution, also the maximum,
being 98. The cases in hospital on the 8th October were
3628, an increase in the four weeks of 289.
The epidemic reached the turning point in the four weeks
dealt with in my eleventh report. In these four weeks, ended
November 5th, the notifications (3755) showing a decline of
204, compared with the number in the preceding four weeks.
But there was an increase of 359 in the admissions to hospital,
viz., from 1500 to 1859. The previous total of 1500, however,
was a decline of 109 compared with the number admitted in