§ SIR LYON PLAYFAIRasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether, in the case of officers and servants for the service of the Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospitals, a proper interval is always allowed to elapse between their re-vaccination and their entering on their duty; and, whether it is the fact that certain officers or servants at the Fulham Small Pox Hospital have entered on their duties without re-vaccination?
MR. GEORGE RUSSELL(who replied) said: We have made inquiry, and find that in the cases of the North-Western, South-Eastern, and Southwestern Hospitals an interval is allowed to elapse between the re-vaccination of the officers and servants and their entering on their duties. In the first mentioned hospital the interval is stated to be 48 or 72 hours. As regards the Eastern Hospital, it has been the custom to re-vaccinate the officers and servants on the day of arrival at the hospital or the day following. At the Hospital Ships no interval elapses betweeen the re-vaccination and exposure to small-pox infection. At the Western or Fulham Hospital the officers and servants are usually re-vaccinated on the day of their entering on their duties. There have, however, since May, 1884, been two instances in which the re-vaccination was not performed until some days after the assistants had commenced discharging their duties, and this was in consequence of an omission to report the cases to the Medical Superintendent.