London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
West Ham 1893
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for West Ham]
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(b) Estimated Cost of Ambulance Service.
| Ship. | Land. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch for 8 or 10 Patients | £700 | Land Ambulance (already in use) | _ |
| Land Ambulance and horse (already in use) | — | Extra Horse, at £50 | £50 |
Weekly Expense in Removing Patients.
| Ship. | Land. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | S. | d. | £ | s. | d. | ||
| Captain of Launch | 2 | 1O | 0 | Driver | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| Mate | 2 | 0 | 0 | Keep of two Horses, &c. | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| Youth | 0 | l6 | 0 | Incidentals | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Engineer | 2 | 5 | 0 | ||||
| Coals and Stores | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Incidentals for Doctor and Nurse | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Driver of Ambulance | 1 | 10 | 0 | ||||
| Keep of Horse, &c. | 0 | 15 | 0 | ||||
| 14 | 16 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 0 | ||
(c) The annual cost of maintenance in either case will vary in accordance with the decision of the
Council as to whether the hospital shall be kept ever in readiness to receive cases or not. If, during interepidemic
periods, when no small-pox cases exist, the hospital is to remain in the hands of caretakers simply,
there will doubtless be no great difference between the annual expenditure of ship and land hospital; but
if, as I submit should be the case, the hospital is to be kept in readiness to receive any case suddenly
arising in the shortest possible time, then the heavy outlay incurred in connection with the river service
militates strongly against the adoption of a ship hospital.
In conclusion, I respectfully submit that the facts cited in this memorandum suggest—(i) the
advisability of erecting a land hospital in preference to converting a ship for that purpose, (2) that a hospital
of 50 beds, with an administrative block capable of dealing with double that number of beds, would be
sufficient accommodation for the requirements of the Borough at present, (3) that the hospital should be
within, if possible, five or six miles from the Borough, and situate a mile from a populated district.
In connection with the last paragraph, I may state that your Public Health Committee have, at the
instance of your chairman, visited and inspected a large site at Dagenham, the only drawback to which is
the close proximity of the village of Dagenham itself. I have no grounds for stating so, other than a
consideration of the reports of Drs. Power and Barry before referred to, but I suggest that the Local
Government Board might raise objection to this site in consequence of this close proximity of population.
The Council has recently acquired land at Chadwell Heath for the purpose of erecting a Borough Asylum.
This latter site is more isolated than that at Dagenham, and would be, in my opinion, much more suitable
or a Borough small-pox hospital, as the distance is not so great, a consideration of much greater moment