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23
the Hendon Rural Council. One of the early decisions of the Harrow
Council was to erect a modern isolation hospital. Arrangements were
well in hand in 1939. The experience of the following years showed that
the isolation hospital accommodation needs of the population of this
district could be met by a smaller number of beds than would be an
efficient or economic hospital unit. Approaches were therefore made
to the Hendon Borough Council and discussions started with this Council
and later with Wembley Council on the possibility of the Hendon Isolation
Hospital being extended to meet the needs not only of Hendon but of
Harrow and Wembley as well. Progress was halted though because of
the possibility of extensive changes being brought about in the administration
of the hospitals by legislation, changes which in fact did come
about on the passing of the National Health Service Act. In the meantime
Harrow considered adapting Stanmore Isolation Hospital as a
residential nursery particularly for the children of unmarried mothers,
it being intended that some of the mothers also should be admitted.
Because of these proposals, in 1948 this hospital passed into the hands
of the County Council, becoming a residential nursery administered by
the Children's Department, while the South Harrow Isolation Hospital
passed to the Minister, becoming in time the Roxbourne Hospital providing
accommodation for a number of elderly patients.
The Hospital Management Committee also administers the Harrow
Chest Clinic, 199, Station Road, Harrow, and the Edgware Chest Clinic
at the Edgware General Hospital.
The Harrow Hospital (Secretary, S. Garbutt, F.H.A., Tel. No.
Byron 2232) is now associated with the Charing Cross Hospital. The
hospital has 122 beds and maintains an out-patients department. It
also maintains a physical treatment centre at the Car Park Building,
Station Road, Harrow. Other hospitals in the neighbourhood which
are in the Charing Cross Hospital group are the Wembley Hospital and
the Kingsbury Maternity Hospital.
The other hospital in the district is the Stanmore Orthopaedic
Hospital, a teaching hospital.
Included in Group 16, the Harefield and Northwood Group (Headquarters,
Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood. Secretary, F. A.
Watson, F.H.A., Tel. No. Northwood 2665) are the Northwood, Pinner
and District Hospital (36 beds); Mount Vernon Hospital and Radium
Institute (427 beds); and the Grimsdyke Rehabilitation Unit, Harrow
Weald (50 beds).
Accommodation for the Infectious
Most of the patients suffering from an infectious disease who have
needed to be admitted to hospital have been accepted at the Hendon
Isolation Hospital. Of the 112 beds at this hospital, 73 are for sufferers
Irom infectious diseases, 20 for those with pulmonary tuberculosis, the
remaining 19 being for gynaecological cases.
No case is known in the last year of a patient suffering from an
infectious condition and needing to be admitted to hospital not having
been accepted at some hospital. Patients for whom accommodation