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The total number of Hampstead patients notified during 1911
was 133, but 20 of these had been previously notified-3 in 1907, 1 in
1908, 7 in 1909 and 9 in 1910; the number of new patients notified was
113 and of those 59 were males and 54 females. The increase in the
number of patients notified in the last three years is due to the operation
of the instalments of compulsory notification provided by the Public
Health(Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908, and the Public Health
(Tuberculosis in Hospitals) Regulations, 1911.
The latter Regulations lay it down that the Council must provide a
supply of printed copies of the notification forms to each hospital in
the district, and the notification certificates must be sent to the medical
officer of health of the district in which the hospital is situate. It then
becomes the duty of the medical officer of health to send on the
certificates relating to patients not belonging to his district to the
medical officers of health of the districts to which they do belong, at the
same time informing the medical officer of the hospital that he has done
so. It is not infrequently a matter of some difficulty to ascertain
the sanitary districts in which these patients live, for the address on the
certificate, though possibly adequate for postal purposes, is insufficient to
identify the sanitary district, and there appears to be no book of reference
that gives adequate information of this kind. As the Mount Vernon
Hospital for Consumption is situated in Hampstead the Regulations
have materially increased the clerical work of the Public Health
Department. During the eight months of the year the Regulations
were in operation no less than 429 certificates were received from the
Hampstead hospitals, chiefly from Mount Vernon, relating to patients
belonging to other districts, and were forwarded to those districts. In
addition 29 certificates relating to non-residents were sent to me in error
and were forwarded to the proper districts.
The total number of notification certificates(including duplicates)
received during 1911 relating to Hampstead patients was 192, and of
these 14 were made under the voluntary system, 93 under the
Regulations of 1908, and 85 under the Hospital Regulations.