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the 2nd of this month, and was removed to Hospital in your ambulance
; the case turned out to be one of Chicken Pox and was sent
back at once: this child had never been vaccinated. On the 16th,
the child again sickened, and was certified by another Medical
Practitioner to be suffering from Small Pox, and was removed to
Hospital on the 17th. A. B., a lodger, who had assisted in nursing
the infant, also sickened two days afterwards, and was removed to
Hospital on the 20th.
The circumstances of these cases conclusively point out that these
two persons took Small Pox from the Board's ambulance, the
disinfection of which must have been most inefficient.
I am desired by the Committee to request that some enquiry may
be made into the method of disinfection in use at the South Eastern
Hospital.
I am, Sir,
Faithfully yours,
GEORGE PADDOCK BATE,
D. Mann, Esq. Medical Officer of Health.
The Metropolitan Asylums Board,
Norfolk House, Norfolk Street, London,
5th May, 1891.
Dear Sir,
AMBULANCE COMMITTEE.
I submitted to the above Committee your letter of the 23rd
ultimo, and in reply I am directed to inform you that the case of
R. L. G., to which you called attention, had not escaped the
Committee's notice; but that, after making every enquiry, they have
no reason to suppose that there was any inefficiency in the disinfection
of the ambulance.
The Committee think it proper to point out that if, in consequence
of a mistaken diagnosis, a patient is removed to a Small Pox Hospital,
then, however great may be the precautions taken, the patient must
of necessity be exposed to a certain risk of infection.
Yours faithfully,
T. DUNCOMBE MANN,
Clerk to the Board.
Dr. G. Paddock Bate,
Medical Officer of Health,
Vestry Hall, Church Row,
Bethnal Green, E.