View report page

22
For removals to institutions in the district and also to Redhill and
Northwood and Pinner Hospitals, a charge of 7s. 6d. is made. For
journeys outside the district the charge is higher, the cost charged for
removal to London being £1.
The ambulances are restricted to proceeding to places within 25 road
miles of the boundary of the district. This was increased from the prewar
figure of 15 miles owing to demand consequent on the evacuation
of many hospitals and the setting up of country establishments of hospitals
during the war.
When an ambulance is required for the removal of a maternity case,
arrangements are made by the applicant or by the Council for the presence
of a midwife or maternity nurse. Owing to difficulties in obtaining staff,
this rule was modified during the latter part of the war.
LABORATORY FACILITIES.
Before the war, apart from the examination for the presence of
Klebs Loeffler bacillus, carried out at the isolation hospital of swabs of
in-patients and specimens sent in by general medical practitioners,
examination of clinical material was undertaken by the laboratories of
the Clinical Research Association.
Having in mind the possible disruption of transport and the risks of
major epidemics, the Government before the war set up the framework
of the Emergency Public Health Laboratory Service, an organization to
supplement the existing services in case of need. Although this was not
intended to interfere in any way with the operation of the normal services
where these could be maintained, it seemed that many authorities did
in fact make use of these laboratories, action which was later confirmed
by the Ministry of Health's approval, and the whole matter regularised
by the payment by local authorities of an annual charge based on the
average pre-war cost to authorities of their laboratory work. At their
meeting in September, 1941, the Public Health Committee decided that
all future samples be sent to the laboratory established under this
organization. Of recent years the work has been done at the Public
Health Laboratory, Bland Sutton Institute, Middlesex Hospital, under
the control of Dr. C. J. Britton. The number of specimens from this
district examined in 1945 was 1,378; the total amount of work done
in units 5,967.
The Government have now decided to continue the Public Health
Laboratory Services on a permanent basis, and the Medical Research
Council has agreed to be responsible for its direction during an initial
period of five years. For the most part the work will be done without
charge to local authorities, though certain kinds of examination can be
undertaken only on a payment basis. The central laboratory of the
whole service is situate at Colindale. At their meeting in October, 1945,
the Public Health Committee agreed to arrangements being made as
soon as possible that specimens for bacteriological examination be submitted
to the central laboratory at Hendon.