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29
A new and improved zinc-lined, enamelled, and aseptic
ambulance has been ordered and is now being constructed. When
this is delivered, some little alteration made in the van sheds, etc.;
and the old " Third Block " improved, and fitted with proper bathrooms
and closets the Hospital will, I hope, prove perfectly adequate
to the needs of the district for some time to come.
The best way to prevent the necessity for more ward space
being asked for, in years to come, is of course to encourage the
prevention of disease by every approved method.
But if preventive measures are relaxed the former saturation
of the district with diphtheria and scarlet fever may return.
It is worth noting that, in the year 1893 when the population
was 15,000 thirty-three deaths from diphtheria occurred.
In 1908 when the population was 28,500, only twenty-nine cases
were notified.
In 1893 there were 243 cases of Scarlet fever and Diphtheria;
in 1908 there were only 65.
During 1908 a proposal was made to establish a poultry
run at the Hospital.
This proposal attracted some public attention, but has been
carried into effect, and, despite gloomy vaticinations, some sixhundred
eggs have been available during the last two or three
months, as the result of the activities of twenty hens.
It is perhaps worth considering whether the cost of Isolation
Hospitals could not be diminished somewhat, and the energies of
the staff during time of slackness well employed, by the adoption,
on a small scale, of some of the methods so conspicuously successful
at public asylums, the cheapest and best managed public
institutions in the country.