IMPROVING MOTOR AMBULANCE EFFICIENCY.
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A New Type of Ambulance Body, Incorporating Many Interesting Features, which has Just Been Designed and Built by the Metropolitan Asylums Board.
THE MOTOR ambulance service controlled and maintained by the Metropolitan Asylums Board has built up an enviable reputation for reliability and efficiency, and this status appears likely to be further enhanced by a new design of anibulance body which ha.s just been completed in the Mead Works of the Board at Carnwath Road, -Fulham, London; SW. The designer of the new ambulance body is Major A. H. Huddart, the engineer-superintendent the Mead Works, and it can be truly said that the new vehicle possesses a considerable number oi improvements over its predecessors.
The new body is distinctly a twopurpose unit. Primarily designed for the conveyance of stretcher.cases, it eau also he turned to account, as a bus for the transport of convalescents.
The activities of the Board consist very largely in the removal of infectious, surgical, mental and maternity cases to and from hospitals, numing homes and the like, but it also undertakes the conveyance of convalescent patients to sanitoria on the coast, and it is with these two objects in mind that the new type of ambulance-cum-bus has been designed. The method of converting the vehicle from one guise: to another is a very simple matter, and it does not involve the removal of, or interference with, the general equipment of the interior:.
As an ambulance the body is designed to accommodate two stretcher cases, and it is in the matter of carrying the stretchers that radical improvements have been effected in order to facilitate the method of loading and unloading patients. Each stretcher is carried on a sliding table, which runs on ball bearings in Ferodo-lined channels. The longitudinal channels are carried on crosspieces supported on spring-mounted legs, to which small rubber-tyred wheels are fitted. There are six legs to each stretcher table, and tho foremost inner leg is the pivotal point for each of the beds.
In normal position a bolt on the rearmost inner leg engages a socket in the floorboards and ensures rigidity so far as the main structure is concerned. The stretcher table and the stretcher itself are each locked independently by simple and effective means, so that the whole structure forms a solid unit, which, being spring mounted as it is, gives exceedingly easy and comfortable iriding,
It will be seen from one of our pictures that when it is desired to load or unload patients the whole stretcher unit is swung round so that the table and stretcher 'combined can be withdrawn through the wide doer opening at the rear. The. extent to which the stretcher table can be pulled out along the channels is govemed by a stop. In this .position the stretcher, which runs on spherical casters, can easily be withdrawn or replaced by two attendants.
Much difficulty is experienced in some types of ambulance in loading and unloading patients' but in this improved typo of stretcher carrier these troubles have been satisfactorily eliminated, and added comfort thus given to the patient.
The interior of the body is heated by the exhaust gases, for which purpose they are taken from behind the silencer by way of a pipe to the front end of the body, where the flow of gases is regulated by a valve in the T-union of the piping. It will be well understood that the 'temperature of the body interior would become overpowering if not under control. The piping extends round three sides of the body and up the rear corners of the back panel, being dispersed in the top of the roof.
Other means of keeping the temperature equable, and ensuring a supply of fresh air, consist of all electrically operated fan and a torpedo-type extractor in the roof. The fan is under the control of the driver, and it can clear the interior of the vehicle a foul air in from 3 mini, to 5 mina.
The floorboards below the stretchers are covered with aluminium sheeting, which extends up the four sides to the
waist line. The space between the stretchers is covered with North British rubber flooring, which is sunk to the level of the aluminium sheeting. The construction of the body in this manner enables the walls to be readily washed down and the disinfecting liquid drained off easily, for which purpose four holes are located in the corners of the floor. The elimination a rattle is another point which has received the utmost consideration. So far as the windows are concerned, it is obviated by fitting the frameless glass panels in channels lined with velvet.
There are two hinged seats fitted for the use of attendants, one being located between the stretchers at the front and one in the-same position on the rear door. The fitting of the former is merely conforming with conventional practice, and now that it is almost the invariable rule to dispose the patient with his head to the front, the seat is not likely to be used to any considerable extent. The seat on the rear door is far more convenieinits for it enables the attendant carefully to watch the movements of the patient, and, at the same time, to avoid
possible contagion from infectious breath.
The location of the seat on the rear door is not entirely a new idea, but, in the past, difficulties have arisen due to the inadequate means for ensuring that
door was properly locked, and to eliminate the possibility of accidents through this cause there is an interleckin.g bolt, which drops into its floor socket so soon as the seat is lowered. Before, the seat is lowered it can be ascertained, by means of two indicators, whether the door is properly shut.
Adequate lighting is provided in the interior, the various lights being shaded in order to prevent glare. At pre: Lmt the wiring for the lights is fitted on the
i inside, but this body s merely an experimental model, and in later types which are being produced it will be housed in tubes between the inner and outer body panels. This is a small but, nevertheless, important point, for it. is very necessary to eliminate all crevices which might accumulate dust or dirt.
Each of the windows, which can he lowered, is covered by a Rexine blind. There is a eliding communication win
dow between the driver's and the patients' compartments. In s. box below the driver's seat a collapsable carrying chair is housed. The entrance to the body interior is by way of two steps formed of aluminium grids with wooden blocks.
When it is desired to convert the ambulance to a bus all that is necessary is to remove the stretchers from the tables and to bring into use the loose cushions which are mounted on deep spring cases. These cushions are placed on top of the stretcher table, whilst two back squabs, extending the full length of the body, drop into sockets on the inside of the body panels. When used as a bus the vehicle can accommodate ten persons.
Some idea of the ramifications af the Metropolitan Asylums Board can be gathered b0111 the fact that its 140 vehicles made no fewer than 66,000 journeys in 1921, during which time they covered close on 1,000,000 miles and removed 113,800 patients in the London area. The Board does not deal with street accidents, which are the concern of the London County Council, the City Corporation, or the local authorities.