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14
Scabies and Verminous Persons
Cleansing Centre.
At the end of the war the Council agreed, in principle, to adapt
the disused mortuary at Wanless Road for use as a cleansing
station owing to the increased demand for facilities which had
been, and still are, met. through the goodwill of the adjoining
Boroughs of Southwark and Battersea, whose premises are placed
at the disposal of Lambeth residents. The service at both is free
to the individual, the Lambeth Council defraying the expense.
A total of 630 persons were treated at the cleansing station and
given 950 treatments, compared with 1,076 persons treated in the
previous year.
There has again been a noticeable fall in the number of cases of
scabies notified, 125, compared with 310 in 1947, 758 in 1946 and
851 in 1945. More settled conditions of life and modern treatments
have both conduced to this end.
The continued reduction in the incidence of both scabies and
head lice makes the adaptation of the mortuary less necessary, and
as the treatment of scabies is really now as much a matter for
either the regional hospital board or the local executive council as
for the borough council, the adaptation may well be postponed
indefinitely.
National Assistance Act, 1948
Section 47.
This section replaces section 224, Public Health (London) Act,
1936, and alters slightly the powers under which a Local Authority
may obtain an order in court for the compulsory removal and
detention in hospital or other suitable institution of persons in
need of care and attention. Whereas it was necessary to obtain
the permission of the County Council for admission to a municipal
hospital, now the consent of either the South Eastern or South
Western Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board must be obtained
for a hospital bed, depending upon which side of the dividing line
the address of the person happens to be, whereas if no therapeutic
treatment is needed but only institutional care and attention is
required, the County Council are the authority whose duty it is to
provide a bed. It is in either event the duty of the County Council
to take reasonable steps to prevent loss or damage to the movable
property of the person removed, and in general the legal requirements
are more involved than they were before the appointed
day. During the year one case was removed under section 224,
and after the appointed day another under section 47.