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PLAISTOW HOSPITAL.
The Medical Superintendent (Dr. D. Maclntyre) reports as
follows:—
The number of patients under treatment during 1933 was
2,080. This is a slight increase over the number treated in the
previous year. The total deaths numbered 105, as compared with
128 in the previous year.
In the early part of the year the Children's Hospital at Harold
Wood was transferred to the Public Assistance Committee to
relieve the overcrowding of the chronic sick in their institutions.
This Hospital, which had 116 beds for fever cases, had been used
for the convalescence of scarlet fever and diphtheria patients from
Plaistow Hospital, and by its transference to the Public Assistance
Committee the accommodation available for infectious diseases
was reduced by one-third. Also the convalescence, particularly of
diphtheria patients, was not so satisfactory at Plaistow Hospital
as it had been previously in the healthier environment of the
Harold Wood Hospital.
On account of the reduced accommodation, the practice of
admitting severe cases of whooping cough, measles and pneumonia
had to be discontinued. The accommodation was reserved
almost entirely for scarlet fever and diphtheria, the preference
being given to diphtheria cases. Unfortunately, these two diseases
increased in prevalence during the year, and it was found impossible
to admit many of the scarlet fever cases that were notified.
The first signs of a rising epidemic of scarlet fever occurred
in June, and thereafter the number of admissions rapidly increased
until the beginning of October, when the accommodation proved
insufficient for the admission of all the cases notified. The type of
disease remained mild.
An unsually virulent type of diphtheria appeared in the district
during the month of February, and cases of this type continued to
be admitted throughout the rest of the year. The fatality from the
disease steadily increased in spite of the administration of large
doses of antitoxin, and by the end of the year the deaths numbered
49 as compared with 9 in the previous year.
No case of typhoid fever was under treatment during the
year. Two cases had been admitted as such, but they did not
prove to be suffering from the disease.
Measles was not prevalent during the year, and only a few
cases were under treatment.
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