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79
LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL (GENERAL
POWERS) ACT, 1928, SECTION 28.
Aged and infirm Persons.
During the year, new legislation came into force
empowering any medical officer of health of a metropolitan
borough to obtain a magistrate's order for the
removal to hospital of any aged and infirm person found
to be living under insanitary conditions and not receiving
proper care and attention. My predecessor had
occasion to invoke this statute on one occasion in the
early part of the year and another case occurred later
in the year. it need hardly be said that the powers
in question are not lightly to be used and careful consideration
is given to the circumstances of each cage.
Where, however, it is clear that a person is not able to
give himself or to obtain in his own home the physical
care required in age and infirmity, it is obviously
desirable both on public health and humanitarian
grounds that he should be placed in more favourable
circumstances. in several instances brought to my
notice, the person concerned voluntarily agreed to enter
hospital without the necessity for adopting the formal
procedure referred to above.
TUBERCULOSIS.
Tuberculosis of all kinds is notifiable, and particulars
of the number of notification certificates received
during the year are set out in the tables appended
hereto, from which it will be seen that 187 new cases of
Tuberculosis were notified under the Public Health
(Tuberculosis) Regulations. in addition, there were
28 cases which came to my knowledge other than by
notification, 15 of these being after death, making a
total of 215 cases.