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At the Northern Hospital an additional new permanent block for 100 patients has just
been completed, and a year or two back the administrative buildings were very
considerably enlarged for the accommodation of the nurses and other staff.
In addition to these larger works, many improvements of a minor character have at the
same time been effected.
The Managers have also, within the past two years, taken important steps for the
extension of their Ambulance Service. They possess three Ambulance Stations, and, at two
of these, important enlargements and extensions have been carried out. They arc also
building a new Ambulance Station at Shooter's Hill, which is nearing completion. They
have acquired a site for a new Ambulance Station adjoining the South-Western Hospital;
and, after most protracted negotiations, and after encountering all the formalities and
difficulties of compulsory purchase, they have obtained a site for a third new Ambulance
Station adjoining the North-Western Hospital—plans for which have been already approved,
and the building of which will shortly be commenced.
I think a consideration of the above facts will satisfy any one acquainted with the
proceedings of public boards, that the Managers' record of progress during the past few years
in the direction of making adequate provision for infectious hospital accommodation for this
great metropolis is a complete answer to any charge of negligence in this respect, and, if only
a proper site for a Convalescent Hospital can be secured at an early date, there is no doubt
that within, say, three years from now, the Managers' total accommodation in fever hospitals
will be upwards of 6,000 beds; in other words, they will, within some six years, have
increased their normal accommodation nearly threefold.
Even now I have not exhausted the story of the Managers' dealing with an emergency,
for while they have been looking to permanent provision as the proper solution of the
difficulty, they have not neglected to take every step that has been possible to make
temporary provision by erection of wooden hut wards, and otherwise, to the utmost extent
allowable within their existing hospitals.
In the above outline of the Managers' proceedings with regard to Hospital accommodation,
I have dealt only with the fever Hospitals, which provide accommodation for the
various fevers and diphtheria, but it is perhaps worth while to add that, while the extensive