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PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER, INFECTIOUS AND OTHER
DISEASES
Isolation Accommodation in the County.
Under Section 63 of the Local Government Act, 1929. the County
Council in 1931 put forward a scheme for the division of the County into four
areas for infectious hospital purposes. This scheme excited much opposition
from nearly all the areas involved and. towards the end of 1934, it was
made known that the Ministry of Health had suggested some fundamental
alterations in the scheme.
Under the original scheme of the County, Southall was to be associated
with Acton B, Brentford and Chiswick B, Ealing B. Hayes and Harlington
U.D., Ruislip-Northwood U.D., Uxbridge U.D., and Yiewsley & West
Drayton U.D. in the third of the four county areas.
Under the Ministry's draft alterations, the western half of this area
was continued as a separate area of its own, and Southall remained with Acton
and Wembley. Ealing, Brentford and Chiswick, as a composite area.
Early in 1935 this matter came before the Council, as the result of
which it was decided to oppose as far as possible the absorption of Southall
in this joint hospital district.
The Isolation Hospital.
The Isolation Hospital belonging to the local authority consists (on
the Ministry of Health basis) of thirty-three beds. Owing to an outbreak
of diphtheria at North Road School in the autumn, the hospital for a considerable
time was overcrowded, the maximum number of patients on any one day
being 52. An arrangement was entered into with the Borough of Willesden
by which cases of scarlet fever and diphtheria which could not be admitted
to Southall Isolation Hospital could be taken to the Willesden Municipal Hospital
on payment of an agreed fee. (A similar agreement with Ealing could
not be utilised as the Ealing Hospital was full at the time). The Southall Isolation
Hospital in the same way agreed to accept Willesden cases (which could
not be admitted to their own hospital) if accommodation were available in
Southall. By this means or by an extension thereof, it should be possible to
ensure against any future gross overcrowding.
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