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(c) Premises for the temporary accommodation of persons for whom such
tion is required for the purposes of the Regulations.
Passengers or crew to be kept under observation are sent to the Port Isolation
Hospital. So far it has not been necessary to make special provision on a large scale,
and if the necessity did arise the ship would be detained until temporary accommodation
ashore had been found.
(d) Hospital accommodation available for Plague, Cholera, Yellow Fever, Small-pox
and other infectious diseases.
The Port Health Authority maintain a hospital for infectious diseases on the
South bank of the River about a mile below Gravesend. Patients can be landed from
the boarding launch at a jetty and be wheeled straight into the hospital.
This jetty was built in 1931 to replace the old concrete causeway, and in 1934
was further improved, but it is still not possible to bring the boarding launch alongside
the jetty at dead low water. To do so would necessitate carrying the jetty out to
about double its present length, an expenditure which would not be justified because
on the rare occasions when it so happens that a patient must be removed from a ship
at dead low water, he can be accommodated quite comfortably in the ambulance
room on the boarding launch until it is possible to land him at the Hospital.
The Hospital buildings comprise an Administrative Block, rebuilt in 1935; three
Ward Blocks, one containing eight cubicles, built in 1934; one built in 1902 containing
two wards, one of eight beds and the other of four, and a special block built in 1927
of two four-bedded wards for the isolation of cases of small-pox. There is also a
disinfecting and bathing station and mortuary built in 1930, a small mechanical
laundry built in 1935, and a caretaker's cottage with storerooms beneath built in 1930.
The Hospital is now lighted with electric light and supplied with water from the
Gravesend Corporation supplies.
Sewage from the administrative block, cubicle ward block, laundry and bathing
station is treated in a small purification plant erected in 1935. The waste water
from the other two ward blocks also comes through this plant but they are still
provided with pail closets, and excreta from these two ward blocks is disposed of
by burning in an incinerator.
No charge is made for the maintenance and treatment in this hospital of either
passengers or members of the crews from merchant ships of any nationality. A small
charge is made for patients from Training Ships and the Sea School.
The hospital site is below Thames high water mark, and was formerly waterlogged
during the winter. Through the generosity of the City Corporation some
£2,000 of City's Cash has been spent in raising the level of the ground by the tipping
of loam to an average depth of 3 feet.
The City Corporation have also, at the expense of City's Cash, built a facade
wall along the river frontage.
(e) Ambulance Transport.
The boarding launch "Howard Deighton" has an ambulance room on deck
with accommodation for four stretcher cases or eight walking cases. This room can
be warmed by an electric radiator and patients can be transferred from ships to
hospital in comfort and safety.
The launch "Frederick Whittingham," built in 1934 for the inspection of ships
in the upper river district, has a small cabin aft in which cases of sickness can be
removed ashore, if necessary.
The launch "James Howell," built in 1923 of wood and having a petrol engine,
and which is used for the inspection of shipping in the middle river district, is being
replaced by a new steel-built launch with a Diesel engine. It is proposed that when
the "Howard Deighton" is for any reason out of commission, this new launch, the
"Alfred Robertson," shall take over her duties and she has a large cabin aft in which
cases of infectious sickness can be removed to hospital.