The London ambulance service. : Reports, etc., containing information collected by the General Purposes Committee of the Council with reference to ambulance provision existing in London, and in provincial and continental cities and towns, for dealing with cases of accident or sudden illness in the streets or other public places. / G.L. Gomme.

  • London County Council.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The London ambulance service. : Reports, etc., containing information collected by the General Purposes Committee of the Council with reference to ambulance provision existing in London, and in provincial and continental cities and towns, for dealing with cases of accident or sudden illness in the streets or other public places. / G.L. Gomme. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    19/38 (page 17)
    from any of the numerous police-alarm teleplione boxes, where a signal-bell communicates with the nearest station, and on the receipt of the call the patrol waggon at such station is at once sent to the spot indicated. There are at present thirty-four police stations and thirty-one patrol waggons in this city, and several hundred call boxes. Every policeman, and some private persons, have a key of the call-boxes ; a key is kept for public use at a drug store nearest adjacent to the box. Each patrol waggon is supplied with a stretcher, medicine-chest, and instruments and appliances for the relief of the injured, and useful instructions and directions are issued to the officers in charge of the waggons for the immediate treatment of the most general and serious injuries. On arrival at the spot the first means of relief are taken, if necessary, by the police officers in charge of the patrol waggon in accordance with these directions, and if the injury is such that the person cannot be moyed from the spot where found without danger, the waggon is sent for a doctor. If the injured person is unknown, or insensible, he is taken to the County Hospital. At the request of the injured jDcrson he can be taken to any other hospital, or his own home. There are also three emergency hospitals in different parts of the city. No charge is made for the transport services rendered. Besides the patrol waggons there is one ambulance waggon, lately presented to the city liy a lady, which is also under the charge of the police, and it is expected shortly there will be four more waggons presented by private persons. New Orleans. The ambulance service of New Orleans is under the direction of the administrators of the Charity Hospital (who are appointed by the Governor of the State), and has been in operation for a little over five years. The headquarters of the ambulance department are in a spacious and well-constracted building situated almost immediately opposite the hospital gates. ■ Its equipment is as follows—three waggons, seven horses, two drivers, two stablemen. Two resident students are on duty for twenty-four hours, and accompany the ambulance waggon upon a call. Should a second call occur before the return, the next two students for duty accompany the ambulaiace. The waggons are covered four-wheel vehicles, each drawn by a pair of horses. On the floor is a spring leather-covei'cd bed which can be drawn out horizontally, and is fitted with handles and adjustable iron legs. This can itself be used as a stretcher in very bad cases, and there is a portable canvas stretcher besides, made in two pieces so as to be easily withdi'awn from under a patient. Each waggon stands ready provided with o medicine-chest containing the remedies usually required in cases of poisoning, burns, scalds, &c., chloroform hypodei'mic preparations, and restoratives. Also a stomach-pump, tourniquets, bandages, plaster, and all requisites for checking hemorrhage and sewing up woands. The horses stand in stalls at each side of the waggon, their harness so arranged over the pole that it can be immediately adjusted. In front of the driver's seat is a gong, which can be struck in the streets as a signal to clear the way. The calls are ustially by telephone. There are many public telephone oflices all over the city, and in its business portions, where accidents most commonly occur, private means of com- munication in this way are readily available, as no one would grudge the use of his instrument. The call goes into the library of the Charity Hospital, where it is verified and any special particulars obtained. Then it is wired over the way. I will suppose that it comes during the night. By one electric action a gong is sounded in the ambulance station and in the bed-room of the students on duty above, the chains of the horse-stalls drop, a trap in the ceiling opens, and the officers on duty slide down a polished steel shaft just behind the waggon, which by the time they can do so, is harnessed and ready to start. The average time between the striking of the gong and the departure of all concerned upon their mission is fifteen seconds. They have gone forth in ten. The route is given by intersection of streets thus ; Carondelet and Poydras. (An equivalent might be, Fleet and Chancery, meaning corner of Fleet-street and Chancery-lane.) Nearly all the streets in New Orleans run either parallel or at right angles to each other at intervals (known as blocks) of 100 yards. When the ambulance arrives on the scene of the accident the students do all that is imme- diately required for the patient, and he is taken either to the hospital for regular treatment or to his own house, in which case, if he be able to pay it, a chai'ge from 2 to 10 dollars is made according to circumstances, or from 8s. 4d. to £2 Is. Sd. In this way many persons who have been poisoned by accident or malice (and both causes are freqtient), who have received wounds or injuries causing serious loss of blood or prostration of the system, who are suffei'ing from fits (easily mistakeable for drunkenness), and other causes calling for immediate medical attendance, owe their lives to this admirable service. COPEXHAGEX. According to the instructions for the executive police of Copenhagen, it is the duty of the police patrol, in cases where any individual is attacked by illness in the streets, or is otherwise found to be in a helpless condition, to render immediate assistance, and, if necessary, take steps to call medical aid to the spot as soon as possible, or else to have the person carried either home or to the liospital. This instruction is of daily application in cases of sickness or injury in the streets, the persons being in most instances conveyed to the various hospitals of the town, the usual means of conveyance Taeing cabs. In the year 1886 there was founded iit the town by a number of private individuals the society known as The Society of Medical Watch Stations, the object of which is to insure to the inhabitants access to medical help in tht^ night-time, when. occasion may require, and to provide materials for temporary surgical appliances, and for the convenient transport of injured persons, Avhether by day or night. This society caused to be established in April, 1887, with [3]