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15
Council. It consists of permanent buildings, capable of accommodating
50 patients with the administrative staff required
for their care, together with temporary iron buildings sufficient
for a further 300 cases. The permanent buildings were opened
in 1899, and the Hospital is a safeguard in epidemic periods of
smallpox to the greater part of London-over-the-Border, as by
agreement eleven other authorities contribute to the maintenance
of the Hospital in consideration of West Ham undertaking to
receive and treat all the smallpox patients sent to the Hospital
by those authorities, viz., Barking, East Ham, Romford Joint
Hospital Board, Ilford, Wanstead. Waltham Joint Hospital
Board, Brentwood, Billericay, Loughton, Epping Rural,
Epping Urban, Ongar Rural.
Under the Tuberculosis Scheme formulated after the
passing of the National Health Insurance Act, the Council
were permitted to use Dagenham Hospital as a Temporary
Sanatorium for Adults with Pulmonary Tuberculosis,
but owing to an outbreak of smallpox at Easter, 1920.
the Hospital had to be promptly cleared of consumptive patients
and revert to its primary use, a costly and very inconvenient
undertaking, as only 30 smallpox cases were admitted. Fortunately
in 1922 the Council was enabled to enter into agreement
with the Orsett Joint Hospital Board whereby the latter
authority will admit sporadic cases of smallpox, up to 20 in
number, sent to their Hospital by West Ham, thus enabling
the Council to continue using Dagenham Hospital for the reception
of Tuberculosis until the increasing pressure on the
accommodation of the Orsett Hospital compels the Council to
re-open Dagenham Hospital for smallpox cases.
During the year 1924-25, 24 additional beds for tuberculous
cases were added, bring the total accommodation up to 128.
A very large number of houses are being built in the
Dagenham Area, and the site occupied by the Smallpox
Hospital (Temp. Tuberculosis Sanatorium), though getting
more valuable from a financial point of view, is becoming increasingly
unsuitable for the purpose of isolating smallpox,
nor is it altogether desirable as a Sanatorium for Tuberculosis.
The population of Dagenham has, during the past five years,
increased from 9,127 to 38,000, and building is still proceeding.
A part of the site in the S.W. corner has been cut off by the
Romford Rural Council in connection with their new roadmaking
scheme, and the Dagenham Spur of the new road to
Southend, runs along the border of the site only a quarter of a
mile from the Hospital itself. It should become a matter of very
serious consideration for the Council as to whether or not