London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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West Ham 1949

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for West Ham]

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NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE ACT, 1946.

Section 22Care of Mothers and Young Children.
Section 23Midwifery.
Section 24Health Visiting.
Section 25Home Nursing.

Particulars of the work carried out under the above-mentioned sections are included
in the Maternity and Child Welfare Section, see pages 20 - 29.
Section 26 - Vaccination and Immunisation - see pages 6 and 7.
Section 27 - Ambulance Service.
The service is run entirely by the Council and is administered by the Health Department.
The scheme, broadly is as follows - (1) the ambulances deployed at fire stations and
the transport depot, under the operational control of the Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade;
and (2) the sitting case cars provided by the Borough Engineer, from the Council's passenger
fleet, and operationally controlled by the Ambulance Officer from the Health Department.
The complement of vehicles in Operation is ten ambulances and twelve sitting case cars;
the latter which are used chiefly for this service, are however available for other purposes
when required. All maintenance and servicing is carried out by the Borough Engineer's
Department.
The deployment of operational vehicles is as follows:-
Ambulances
Stratford Fire Station 1
Plaistow Fire Station 4
Silvertown Fire Station 1
Transport Depot 4
Sitting Case Cars
Transport Depot 12
Four new ambulances were put into commission during the year.
This being the first full year in which the Council was responsible for running the
service under the National Health Service Act, it is not possible to give comparative figures.
As was to be expected however the demands on the service greatly increased, and it is doubtful
whether a 'peak' figure has yet been reached in the service provided by sitting case cars.
The calls upon the ambulances increased considerably with the Introduction of the National
Health Service Act, but from the beginning of 1949, this part of the service showed some signs
of stabilisation there being only a slight tendency to any increase during the year.
With the sitting case car service however there was no evidence of stabilisation.
During the latter part of 1948 there had been a rapid Increase in the demand, which was sustained
during the year under review. In fact the number of patients conveyed during December, 1949,
was approximately double the number dealt with in the first month of the year.
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