View report page

36
maintenance of the Dagenham Hospital, together with a fee for the
reception and treatment of each case.
As a provisional proposal of this kind, I suggest that each district
might pay to the Borough an annual sum of £1 per 1,000 of its
estimated population, and £2 2s. per week per case sent in.
This latter fee is the price at present paid by the Council to the
Metropolitan Asylums Board, and is the lowest charge estimated by
that Board, after careful investigation, to cover the reception and
treatment of cases of small-pox without including any sum for
establishment maintenance.
The estimated population of the outlying districts referred to is
about 190,000, which would provide a yearly sum of £190 towards
the maintenance of the hospital both during user and non-user, and
the Borough would derive an indirect benefit by ensuring the
prompt removal of a dangerous infectious disease from its immediate
neighbourhood, without suffering pecuniary loss from the suggested
enlargement of the hospital.
The Council could, and doubtless would, receive cases into the
Dagenham Hospital from other sanitary districts so long as the
accommodation allowed, (due regard being had to the necessities of the
Borough ; but I feel sure such an uncertain position would not commend
itself to the Sanitary Authorities concerned; and, therefore, unless
some arrangement, say for seven or more years, on the lines above
suggested, be made, it would be impracticable and unwise for the
Council to enter into an agreement to provide hospital accommodation
for cases of small-pox occurring outside the Borough.
"CHARLES SANDERS."
Medical Officer of Health.
Town Hall,
West Ham,
16th September, 1896.