View report page

9
average duration of each patient's sojourn in the Hospital was
forty days, and the average cost per day in each case, including
ambulance charges, was 5s 6½d. In the Diphtheria case the
charge per day was as high as 17s 9d, but this circumstance was
evidently due to the fact that there were no other Diphtheria
cases in the Hospital at the time, so that the nursing expenses
were necessarily rather heavy. One of the chief disadvantages
of small isolation hospitals is that the administrative charges
must of necessity under certain circumstances be much higher
than in larger institutions.
The Epping Rural District Council have recently entered
into a contract with the Chingford Urban Council to receive
infectious cases from Chingford in their Isolation Hospital at
Theydon Garnon for a term of three years, commencing on
November 11th, 1898, on certain conditions. First a sum of
£25 has to be paid annually for the use of the Hospital, whether
patients are sent from Chingford or not in any given year.
Secondly, the charge for each Scarlet Fever case will be 7s 6d
per day; for each Typhoid Fever case l2s 6d per day; and for
each Diphtheria case 17s 6d per day. The use of the ambulance
will be included in these charges. Patients will only be admitted
provided there is room for them in the Hospital.
Drainage.
Although the Chingford Hatch drainage scheme has not yet
been carried out in consequence of some minor objections on the
part of the Local Government Board, there is every reason to
believe it will be commenced very shortly, as soon as the London
authorities have given their final sanction to the undertaking.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the insanitary condition of
this part of the parish during the year that has just expired, and
therefore it is all the more gratifying to know that this most
unsatisfactory state of things will soon be numbered with the