View report page

109
them are, they are exposed to more dangerous strains of the organisms
than that which caused their complaint. Most of the patients admitted
to an isolation hospital are accepted at the Edgware Isolation Hospital,
Goldsmith Avenue, Hendon (Medical Superintendent, Dr. Livingstone,
Tel. No. Colindale 8182). For those patients who cannot be accepted
here, but who are considered to be in need of admission to hospital,
application for their admission elsewhere is made to the Emergency Bed
Service.
Smallpox is one of the notifiable diseases which is treated in a hospital
quite apart from those taking in other infections. Before such patients
are removed to hospital, it is now customary for the diagnosis to be confirmed
by a consultant attached to one of the larger isolation hospitals.
A panel of doctors with special experience in smallpox has been set up
by the Ministry of Health. The procedure for summoning the consultant
is set out in a Ministry's circular letter:—" When a general practitioner
or a member of a hospital staff raises the possibility of the diagnosis of
smallpox, he should in every such case first call in the Medical Officer of
Health of the district concerned. It will be for that Medical Officer of
Health to decide whether he requires a further opinion. It is important
to bear in mind that the fee for these consultations will be paid by the
Ministry only when the further opinion is called for by the Medical Officer
of Health."
The consultant for the North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital
Board area for North of the Thames and the adjoining Home Counties is
Dr. W. Gunn, Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead (PRImrose 7671, Bartram
Lodge, Fleet Road, N.W.3, PRImrose 2212).
Dr. G. W. Ronaldson, Physician Superintendent of the Eastern
Hospital, Hackney (AMHurst 1193), is the consultant for suspected cases
of typhus fever.
Since 1950 cases of smallpox from any part of Middlesex have been
admitted to the Joyce Green Hospital, Dartford, Kent (Dr. Mitman,
(DARtford 3231). Although actual removal of smallpox patients is
made by the ambulances of the London County Council, the approach
for the removal of a patient is made to the Middlesex County Council
Ambulance Service.
There are special institutions for the treatment of those suffering
from tuberculosis, many of the pulmonary cases being admitted to sanatoria,
while those suffering from the non-pulmonary disease who are
mostly children are, in general, admitted to separate institutions. The
arrangements for the admission to hospital of those suffering from tuberculosis
are made by the physicians at the chest clinics.
The schoolchild who has suffered from scarlet fever is usually exuded
from school for seven days after his discharge from hospital or
r°m home isolation. This period is extended should he develop a cold
ln the head, a discharge from the nose or ear, a sore throat or septic
sPots. The period of exclusion of those who have suffered from diphtheria
determined usually by the child's clinical condition; after recovery,
1 ls usual to obtain negative nose and throat swabs. A sufferer from
^easles is excluded for 14 days from the appearance of the rash; from
Serman measles for seven days from the appearance of the rash; from