[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council.

  • Cumberland County Council
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/98 (page 33)
    areas were over represented, while others were still not adequately provided for. Also the terms submitted by the firms concerned on which they were )')repared to operate, naturally varied considerably. Consideration is now being given to the establishment of standard rates for the whole county but certain difficulties have been experienced, and negotiations are still in progress at the time of writing. Complaints have been received from ceitain areas, which have been shown to be not without foundation, that the available work has been inequitably distributed in certain places between the taxi proprietors operating the service. Measures to improve this are under consideration. The service has recently shown an alarming rise in expen- diture. From 5th July up to the end of December 1948 the following was the position :— Journeys Authorised by. — Doctors . . . . 2235 . County Health Dept. .. 160 . Duly .Authorised Officers 60 . Hospitals . . 790 . Others . . . . . . 175 . The situation has, however, since the end of the year changed so completely that the data given above are now completely out of date as a true picture of what is happening. Instead of running at a cost of say £6,800 a year for the sitting case car service, we are now running at a cost of £20,000 a year, the mileage now being at the rate of approximately 350,000 miles a year (and rising), to which must be added, of course, the ambulance and hospital car service figures. The service has conferred a great benefit on a great many people, but there is no doubt that it is open to abuse and there is no doubt that it has to some extent been abused. Not every person using the service could answer the once famous question—“Is youy journey really necessary} There is eciually no doubt that it could be more economically used. We are, however, passing through the initial stage of a substantial service and teething troubles were inevitable. It may, I think, confidently be hoped that consultations with the Hospital Management Committees and the Executive Council, which are envisaged at an early date, will help to put things on a better basis. I feel quite certain that these difficulties are not peculiar to Cumberland, and that they must be more or less universal. A typical point is something like this. John Smith has an accident and fractures his leg. He is admitted to hospital and on discharge a week or two later he is required to No. of journeys 3420 Mileage Run 108,675 Cost per Mile 11.15d.