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117
COMMUNICATIONS FROM YARIOUS LOCAL AUTHORITIES
CONSIDERED DURING 1903.
During the year your Council received communications
from various Local Authorities on public health matters as
follows (which were referred to the Committee and reported
on by your Medical Officer of Health):—
"Return " Cases of Infectious Disease.
A letter, dated March 17th, from the Poplar Borough
Council calling attention to the alleged discharge of patients
from the Metropolitan Asylums Board hospitals in a condition
liable to convey infection to other persons, and
stating that they requested the Metropolitan Asylums Board
to take such steps as may be necessary to prevent in future
the discharge of patients while in such condition. The
Poplar Borough Council enquired whether any cases of
infection, or suspected infection, from the premature discharge
of patients from hospitals of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board had occurred in this Borough, and asked
that the matter might be brought to the notice of the Council
with a view to pressure being brought to bear upon the
Metropolitan Asylums Board to secure the adoption of more
adequate precautions against premature discharges and
consequent spread of infection. The Committee received a
report from the Medical Officer of Health stating that so far
as his personal experience went in this Borough, he was of
opinion that every care was taken by the officers of the
Metropolitan Asylums Board, by careful examination, to
prevent the discharge of patients whilst in an infectious
condition; that it was true that on one or two occasions
there had been a suspicion that new cases had been traced
to children returning from hospital, but there had been no
direct evidence that the infection was due to discharged