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
Islington 1905
Fiftieth annual report on the health and sanitary condition of the Metropolitan Borough of Islington
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174
1905]
These gross figures show that the average cost of each vaccination in
Salford during these six years has been 6s. 8d.
From these figures the average cost for each year has been worked out, and it is found that whereas the cost in 1900 in Salford was 10s. 10½d. it had fallen in 1905 to 6s. 8£d., an amount which, as it presumably includes the remuneration to the Vaccination Officers, cannot be said to be unreasonable, especially when the minimum fees laid down by the Act of 1898 are recollected. The figures for each year are as follows :—
| 1900 | 10s. 10½d. per vaccination. |
| 1901 | 10s. 4d. „ |
| 1902 | 9s. 4½d. „ |
| 1903 | 6s. 11d. „ |
| 1904 | 4s. 10d. „ |
| 1905 | 6s. 8½d. „ |
Cost of Vaccination in Islington.
In Islington it appears from a return kindly prepared by Mr. Edwin
Davey, the Clerk to the Guardians, that in the same years as stated for
Salford the average cost of each vaccination has been 6s. 6½d., or 1½d. less than
in that town. Such a close approximation of the average fees to each other
shows that the two Boards of Guardians evidently administered the law on the
same lines. As in Salford, so in Islington also has there been a variation in the
average cost per case, for while it was 9s. 5d. in 1900, it had fallen to
7s. 1d. in 1905. The lowest average cost occured in 1902, when 14,896
adults, in addition to the ordinary infantile vaccinations were re-vaccinated.
This circumstance resulted in the reduction of the average cost of
each vaccination because a lesser fee is paid for a re-vaccination, the
operation generally being performed at the doctor's surgery, and not at the
individual's house. A similar low average, 4s. 10d. per vaccination, occurred in
Salford in 1904, when 10,781 persons were re-vaccinated. With reference to
the Lambeth comparison as to the cost of vaccination, before and after the
passing of the Vaccination Act of 1898, it is found that it contrasts with
Islington as follows :—
Average cost in Lambeth per vaccination in the three years prior to
Act, 5s. 7d.
Average cost in Islington per vaccination in the three years prior to
Act, 5s. 4d.