View report page

instead of reducing the number of Sanitary Inspectors the Vestry should
not rather add to their number.—I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,
(Signed) JOHN LITHIBY, Assistant Secretary.
C. W. Tagg, Esq., Vestry Clerk, Parish op Camberwell.
REPORT OF MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.
To the Chairman and Members of the Sewers and Sanitary Committee.
Gentlemen, —On January 18th, 1898,I reported to the Committee
on the subject of the supervision and working of the Public Health
Department, and the recommendation of the Committee to the Vestry
was that in future I should be the absolute head of my Department,
responsible for myself and the Sanitary Staff direct to the Committee, and
that I be responsible for all the correspondence of the Department, and
that all complaints relating to the Sanitary Department at once be referred
to me for report to the Committee direct. This was shelved by the Vestry
with the exception of the question of the appointment of two additional
clerks, to which the "previous question" was moved as an amendment
and carried.
To the recommendations then put forward in the main I still
adhere to, but certain modifications are necessary, first of all in consequence
of the increased duties which will be imposed on the Sanitary
Authority by the new Act, and also to effect some necessary improvement
in the administration of the Sanitary Department.
First of all as regards the number of Inspectors. The Local
Government Board imply that fifteen would be the proper number for a
district the size of Camberwell, while your Committee apparently consider
that eleven are sufficient.
In my opinion, however, I think that twelve, excluding the
Inspector in charge of the Food and Drugs Acts, is the minimum, but I
think that if the clerical staff be increased to the number that I propose,
with this number we shall be able to carry out the Public Health Act
in a proper manner, but not otherwise.
If, however, the Vestry should decide to carry out those
sections of the Public Health Act which relate to Houses Let in Lodgings
as they should be carried out, a further increase in the number of
Inspectors will become necessary.
Now as regards the clerical staff. I think that in the future
much should be done by the clerks that is at present done by the
Inspectors, work which necessitates them being much longer in the Vestry
Hall than is advisable. The latter should simply have as their clerical
work their pocket books (of which they should have a double set), which
they use as memoranda of their visits, &c., their time sheets and their
books in which they ask power from the Committee to serve statutory
notices and to make out the same. The clerks would fill up the complaint
sheets and make out intimations. They should also keep the register of
inspections of schools and cowhouses.
XV.