London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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St Pancras 1919

Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1919

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81
Section VII—Other Services.
It is satisfactory to record that most cordial co-operation exists between the
work of the Council and the various voluntary agencies carrying out work of
public health and social importance. This is the case in connection with the
various hospitals and dispensaries, the local District Nursing Associations,
the Maternity Nursing Association, the Iavalid Children's Aid Association,
the Charity Organisation Society, the National Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children, the Invalid Kitchcns, the Passmore Edwards Settlement,
the Lyndhurst Hall, and the Kentish Town Dining Room for Mothers, etc.
Reference to various voluntary institutions which are subsidized by the
Council will be found elsewhere in this report, particularly in Section V.
(Maternity and Child Welfare).
Useful co-operation exists with the work of the St. Pancras Guardians, and
the system of removal of cases of various infectious diseases to the hospitals
of the Metropolitan Asylums Board works admirably. There is need, however,
for much closer co-ordination of the medical work carried out by the Borough
Council, the Guardians, and the London County Council. Reference is made
to activities of the County Council on pages 22-29, 45 and elsewhere.
Home Nursing.
As regards district nursing, the borough comprises the whole of the district
of the Central St. Pancras District Nursing Association, and large portions of
the districts of the Metropolitan Nursing Association, the Hampstead District
Nursing Association, and the North London Nursing Association. The associations
are paid by the Council or the Mayoress' Nursing Fund at the rate of
1s. per visit for the nursing of cases of measles, whooping cough, ophthalmia
neonatorum, infantile diarrhoea, influenza and pneumonia, but the bulk of
their work is supported by voluntary funds. The home nursing is of very
great public health importance, and the need for its extension and support
from public funds is very great. So far as London is concerned, it is work
which could eminently well be organized by the Borough Councils as the
local sanitary authorities, and it would be an important step in advance if
they were empowered to undertake this work. The home nursing work done
during 1919 in St. Pancras is indicated by the following figures:—
No. of cases
nursed.
No. of home
visits paid.
Central St. Pancras District Nursing Association 549 7911
Metropolitan Nursing Association (St. Pancras cases) 315 3785
Hampstead District ,, ,, „ 389 2757
North London Nursing „ „ „ 229
Section VIII.-HOUSING.
For several years I have made reference in these annual, reports to the
gravity of the tenement house evil in the borough. The matter is of such
great importance that I venture to insert in this place a statement in regard to
it which I put forward at an earlier date*:—
The tenement house is a house which was originally built for one family only,
* Eridence given by the Medical Officer of Health before the Departmental Committee on
Unhealthy Areas on 17th December, 1919.