London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Marylebone 1894
The sanitary chronicles of the Parish of St. Marylebone being the annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1894
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23
CLERICAL WORK.
THE CLERICAL WORK OF THE SANITARY
DEPARTMENT.
The Clerical Staff consists of a chief clerk (Mr. Curtis)
and an assistant clerk (Mr. Woods).
These clerks have carried out their duties well and
efficiently, although working under considerable difficulties.
The difficulties consist in the fact that their office is a room
used by the six sanitary inspectors and the dust foremen.
It is also the waiting.room for the general public. The
consequence is that for about three hours each day there is
a number of persons in the office, and much discussion
between builders, owners, and inspectors ; these discussions
are often carried on in a loud voice, and, since differences
of opinion are common, the interviews are—to put it mildly
—occasionally of an animated character.
It is easier to state a case than to find a remedy: the
work of the sanitary department has outgrown its size, and
it is only by a reconstruction of the building that extra
accommodation can be provided.
The clerical work during 1894 may be summarised as follows:—
| Number of Notifications of infectious diseases entered in Register, copied, and sent to Metropolitan Asylums Board and Schools, receipt acknowledged and filed | 1780 |
| Number of Complaints of Nuisance received, entered in Nuisance Register, and filed | 1268 |
| Number of Dust requests and Complaints received, entered on Contractors' sheets, copied, and filed | 2762 |
| Number of Letters despatched from Department | 1845 |
| Number of Vestry Notices issued | 592 |
| Number of Meetings of Sanitary and Sewers Committee prepared for, attended, and Minutes drafted and written | 23 |
| Number of Eeports from Committee to Vestry prepared | 21 |
| Number of Meetings of Sub . committees prepared for, attended, and Minutes drafted and written | 20 |
| Number of Reports from Sub.committees to Committee prepared | 19 |