London's Efficient Ambulance Service.
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DETAILS of the London ambulance service are given in the recentlyissued 1925 report of the London County Council. The London ambulance service, which was established in 1915, deals with accidents or cases of sudden illness in streets or public places. Accidents occurring in private houses are also accepted, but the service is not intended for the removal of persons suffering from illness in private houses, the transport of such cases bein., undertaken by the Metropolitan Asylums Board.
At eleven of the stations in commission at the end of 1925 one ambulance is always available ; at the one subsidiary station one ambulance is available between 7.30 a.m. and 11.30
p.m. Nineteen ambulances are provided for the service of the 12 stations. During the year three new ambulances were obtained. The total mileage of the ambulances for the year was 169,510 ' as compared with 148,935 in 1924. During the year the oxygen apparatus
r26 with which each ambulance was equipped in 1921 was used on 278 occasions.'
Practically all calls are received by telephone, such calls being passed without charge by the London telephone service. Calls received during the past 11 years have been as follows :-1915, 2,405; 1916, 9,244 : 1917, 12,632; 1918, 15,911: 1919, 18,182; 1920, 19,414; 1921, 20,879; 1922, 23,966: 1923, 27,469; 1924, 31,100. and 1925, 35,269. In 1925, police calls formed 66 per cent, of the total. The number in a day varied from 37 (March 29th) to 162 (August
22nd). The summer months are always the busiest for the service. The highest number (3,390) for any month since the establishment of the service was received during July, 1925; during the third week in June, 1925 the record number of 825 calls was received.
Statistics for past years of the calls received during each hour show surprising uniformity. During 1925 the number of calls decreased each hour
from midnight till 6 a.m., from which time they steadily Mounted until 1 p.m. ; between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. there was a slight drop, after which calls increased until between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. nearly the busiest time of the day was reached. A decline followed until 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., after which an increase occurred, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. being the busiest hour of the day.
The number of false calls received in the year was very small, but sometimes it was found on arrival that the cases had been removed by other means. Seventeen calls during 1925 could not be accepted owing to dense fog rendering it, impossible for ambulances to reach the ease speedily. During 1925, the average time which elapsed between the receipt of a call and the arrival of an ambulance at a cage was 7_5 minutes, as compared with 7.8 minutes in 1924, and within an average of 16.5 minutes from the receipt of the call the casualty had been received at hospital, a very creditable performance.