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salary and tenure of office of Health Visitors appointed under
this section, and no appointment of a Health Visitor shall be
made o herwise than in accordance with such regulations.
Sub-section (3) provides that it shall be lawful for the
London County Council to pay out of the County Fund and
charge to th Exchequer Contribution Account any sum or
sums by way of contribution towards the salaries of any person
so appointed, not exceeding of any such person one-half of her
salary.
This section is of considerable importance to sanitary
authorities as they are now empowered to appoint Health
Visitors as such and to have returned to them a portion of the
salaries of these officers as in the case of sanitary inspectors.
As the Committee are aware, part of the time of one of the
lady sanitary inspectors is devoted to Health Visiting, for
which the Council receive no return in respect of that portion
of her salary which has been allocated for this purpose. The
success that has already attended the efforts of the Council in
the reduction of the high rate of infant mortality which
formerly prevailed in the Borough should encourage them to
appoint at least one additional Health Visitor. The Notification
of Births Act and, more recently, the Public Health
(Tuberculosis) Regulations have added largely to the duties
of the Health Department, and the duties in connection with
these enactments are most suitably performed by such officers.
It will not be possible, in my opinion, to adequately carry out
the duties under these powers unless the Council appoint an
additional Health Visitor whose duties should be entirely
devoted to this important work.
Sections 7 and 8 deal with the provision of accommodation
for cooking of food in tenement houses and with sanitary
regulations for premises used for the sale of food for human
consumption, respectively. With regard to Section 7, the
powers provided by the Section suffer from the fact of not being
retrospective in character. Section 8 should prove of material
assistance to sanitary authorities in securing the sanitary
condition of premises in which food is prepared, stored and sold
for human consumption. Prior to the passing of this Act, a
sanitary authority could only deal with these premises under
the provisions of the Public Health and Factory and Workshops
Acts. The powers of the authority as regards the latter
Act are largely confined to workshops, workplaces, &c. In
the case of factory premises, the duties of the sanitary authority
are of a very limited character. There are a great many
premises in the borough in which food is prepared that, by
reason of the fact that electric or steam power is used—such.