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3
Town Hall,
Ealing, W.5.
26th April, 1948.
Madam Chairman, Landies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit to you the Annual Report on
the hospitals for the year 1947-1948.
I wish first, to draw your attention to the increased number
of admissions into Clayponds Hospital during this period, an
increase of over 21% as compared with the previous year and a
truly meritorious performance considering the shortages of nursing
staff which at times have been acute. The average daily number
of patients, while well within the bed capacity of the hospital, has
risen from 21.3, to the figure of 30.4, and this was mainly due to
the 96 notified cases of poliomyelitis during the epidemic which
swept through the two boroughs in 1947.
Clayponds had its full share of this and all the various types
of the disease were admitted and treated, so that when the
Ministry produced their film on Poliomyelitis for the benefit of
health authorities throughout the country it was natural that this
hospital should be selected as one of the three that collaborated
to supply cases.
It is gratifying to note that it was found possible this year
to commence the scheme for the operative treatment of tonsils
and adenoids and so reduce the long waiting lists of cases that had
accumulated in the previous years. In all, 368 cases were admitted
and had the operation.
It is to be noted that of the 39 patients admitted as suffering
from diphtheria, only two were in fact cases of diphtheria, with
of course no deaths; a testimony to the control of this disease
by the Public Health Departments in the respective areas.
In my experience, Gastroenteritis and Whooping Cough are
now without doubt, the two most serious of infantile diseases,
and the most fatal in infants under the age of one year, and all
avenues of prevention and treatment merit exploration.
It will be remembered that the Ministry of Health last year
in conjunction with the Central Midwives Board advised that
patients could be discharged from maternity units on the tenth
day instead of the fourteenth, and although the average stay in
Perivale during the last year has been slightly over 12 days, it
was found possible to admit the record number of 1,301 patients.