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63
REMOVAL OF THE INFECTIOUS SICK TO
HOSPITALS.
The Vestry were gratified at receiving an intimation, in
the month of September, that the Local Government Board
assented to the admission of small-pox and fever patients to
the Hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, on the
certificate of a sanitary officer or a private medical practitioner,
without the intervention of poor-law officers. The
Vestry were further informed that it had been the intention
of the President of the Local Government Board to introduce
a Bill to remove any doubt as to the legality of this practice
during the past year, but that he was prevented by other
circumstances. In the meantime, however, the Board will
remit any surcharge based on the absence of an order
from a Relieving Officer, which the Auditor may make, and
thus a principle for which the Vestry have been striving for
years—the removal of the infectious sick to the Metropolitan
Asylums Board's Hospitals on sanitary grounds—has virtually
been conceded.
An epidemic of diphtheria called attention to the desirability
of the Asylums Board making provision for the
reception and treatment of patients suffering from this highly
infectious disorder and needing isolation. The Vestry joined
other Sanitary Authorities in representing to the Local
Government Board the advisability of the Asylums Board
being authorised to make such provision, which they would
be willing to do if their powers were clear. The Board
replied that their power to authorise the Asylums Board to
receive patients suffering from diphtheria was not free from
doubt, but that a Bill will be introduced next session to deal
with the question, and that in the meantime they will be
prepared to remit the surcharge of any expenses properly
incurred in the treatment of such patients.