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170
1005]
COST OF VACCINATION AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF
THE VACCINATION ACT, 1898, BY SANITARY AUTHORITIES
INSTEAD OF BY THE BOARD OF GUARDIANS.
Towards the end of the year three letters were received from the Boroughs
of Salford, Bermondsey and Lambeth on the following subjects :—
1. To the increased cost of vaccination.
2. To the desirability of the practice of vaccination being
controlled by Public Health Authorities instead of by Board
of Guardians.
3. To the appointment in large towns of a Medical Vaccination
Officer at a fixed salary, who shall give his whole time to the
duties of vaccination.
First, with respect to the cost of vaccination.
The Increased Cost of Vaccination.—The Town Council of Salford
in bringing this matter under your notice, say that they are of opinion that the
cost of vaccination under the present Act has been unnecessarily heavy, and
that in any further legislation it would urge that the scale of remuneration
should be modified; and the Borough Council of Bermondsey support this
view.
Now, in order to see how far their contention is correct, it will be
necessary first to enquire into the nature of the duties cast upon the Public
Vaccinators under the Vaccination Act of 1867 and under the Vaccination Act
of 1898 before a just conclusion can be arrived at, because it is not a fair or
just criterion to merely compare figures without also taking into consideration
the relative amount of work that the Acts and Regulations made under them
impose on the officers appointed to execute them, and also surveying the
advantages that have accrued to the infants, parents and guardians under the
Act of 1898.
Under the Act ot 1867 Vaccination was performed at appointed
stations, as this law enacted that the Guardians "shall provide all stations at
" which vaccination shall be appointed to be performed other than the surgery
"or residence of the Public Vaccinator." To those Stations the infants were
brought on stated days and hours, ana arm to arm vaccination was freely,
almost entirely, practised.