View report page

Ambulance facilities. The following; ambulances are
available for use by the public, with certain reservations:
(a) For general hospital cases (Whipps Cross Hospital) 5
(b) For infectious cases (Plaistow Hospital) 2
(c) For accidents and maternity cases 3
Two of the three ambulances provided for accidents are
owned by the Public Health Committee. They are housed, driven,
supplied with petrol and oil, and maintained by a contractor in
the borough. These vehicles made 2,698 journeys during the year,
including 8 at the request of the East Ham Council. The number
of journeys made from one address to another in the district
was 1,310, whilst 1,388 journeys were made from an address in
the borough to an address outside, or vice versa. Of the total
number of journeys made by the ambulances, no less than 839
were for accidents occurring either at home, at work, or in the
street. These ambulances are only used for accidents and noninfectious
cases requiring immediate removal to hospital for treatment
or operation, and in the latter cases a medical certificate is
required. The total number of persons removed by these ambulances
was 2,902.
Information regarding the use of these ambulances is
brought to the notice of the general public by means of notices
which are placed in Council's fire stations, schools, and other
public buildings; in addition to this the police are fully aware of
the conditions in force, and on a number of occasions they communicate
direct with the ambulance stations. The service has been
in operation for some considerable time, and the citizens are fully
cognisant of the rules and regulations governing the use of the
Council's ambulances.
Reciprocal arrangements are in force with the County
Borough of East Ham and with the Borough of Barking, for the
use of their respective ambulances, on call, in cases of emergency.
The journeys made under these arrangements during 1937 are as
under:—
In 24 cases the ambulance of the East Ham Authority was
requisitioned for the removal of West Ham cases, and on 8
occasions the West Ham ambulance was used for East Ham cases.
In addition to the Public Health Committee's two
ambulances, the Highways Committee of the Council has an
ambulance stationed at the Silvertown Fire Station in the Silver-
38