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A Hospital Transport Problem Solved by Buses

8th March 1935, Page 60
8th March 1935
Page 60
Page 60, 8th March 1935 — A Hospital Transport Problem Solved by Buses
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Keywords : Bus

A Private Bus Service, Instituted Between Charing Cross Hospital and the Nurses' Home, Shows Good Results After Three Years' Working

ONE of the largest hospitals in London, situated in the busy central area, built, some three years ago, a hostel for its nurses at Hampstead, 54, miles distant from the hospital. The Charing CPOSS Hospital Council, after a preliminary trial of using hired vehicles for transporting the nurses to and from the new hostel, then ventured on the bold course of acquiring and running its own vehicles.

To this end it approached the Daimler Co., Ltd., Coventry, and purchaSed from that concern two C.F.6-type 82 seaeer buses, the bodies being by Grose, Ltd., Northampton, and E. D. Abbott, Ltd., Farnham, The Daimler Co., Ltd., undertook to organize and run the service for a trial period of three months, using as the headquarters of the service the concern's repair depot at Hendon.

Three drivers were engaged to operate the buses, and a washer to clean the vehicles each night, was assigned to work exclusively on this service. It was suggested that payment for operating the buses should be charged on a mileage basis. In view of the fact that this course would, however, necessitate a figure per mile sufficient to provide for any repair that might be required and was, in consequence. open to question, it was finally decided to submit a monthly account to the hospital authorities, attaching a summary of the actual expenditure incurred on the service during that period. Repairs were carried out at an economic figure and routine maintenance was undertaken by the drivers.

At the end of the trial period the service had been so satisfactory that the Hospital Council asked the Daimler Co., Ltd„ to continue the organization and running of the vehicles, and this, it has done up to the present time.

The hospital authorities pay direct the annual tax and insurance charges on the vehicles, all other costs incurred

c38 in the running of the service being charged by the company, in , its monthly accounts. From the end of May, 1932, to the end of November, 1934, the cost of the service, excluding tax, insurance and depreciation, amounted to £3,273, this figure being made up of the following items :—Running costs and repairs, £1,175; wages, 21.842; garage of vehicles, £224; men's overalls and clothing account, £.31.

In this period one bus covered 25,613 miles and the other 26,297 miles, mak

ing a total mileage of 51,915. The cost per vehicle mile, exclusive of tax, insurance and depreciation works out at 7.56d., and it has been found that when the three items mentioned aro included, the total cost still shows a large annual saving in comparison with the cost of hiring vehicles.

A feature of the service is its flexibility, the vehicles being available for conveying the nurses to various hospital functions, outside the usual ron: tine running. The daily running of the buses may be altered to suit special conditions, but the following gives an Idea of a typical day's service.

Both buses leave Hendon at 6.50 a.m. for the nurses hostel. They leave there at 7.30 a.m., arriving at the hospital at 8 a.m. At 8.30 a.m. the vehicles take the night nurses back to the hostel and then return to Hendon. During the morning one bus takes " trainees" to lectures. At 5 p.m. one bus leaves to take nurses, who come off duty at 6 p.m., to Hampstead, and returns to Charing Cross with a number of nurses attending evening lectures. At 8 p.m. most 01 Me day nurses come off duty and both vehicles are used to convey them to Hampstead. The vehicles then return to the hospital with the night nurses, and leave, finally, for the hostel at 9 p.m. with the remainder of the day nurses.

Approximately 200 passengers are carried daily, and we understand that during the three years' working no involuntary stop has been occasioned and the vehicles have never missed a journey or been late. The buses are kept in an exemplary condition, and whilst It may not be essential to efficient working, we are interested to see that the engines were polished to a high degree. The same care had evidently been bestowed upon other parts of the vehicles, and the paintwork was as new, In a short time extensions are to be made at the nurses' hostel and a hundred more nurses are to be housed at Hampstead. The number of vehicles will then be augmented.


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