View report page

45
WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT.
WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT.
General.
Staff.—No changes took place in the Staff. The usual summary of work performed by
the District Inspectors will be found in Table 31. Separate tables will be given later on
with reference to the work of the Special Inspectors.
Prevention of Infectious Diseases.—During the year 4,145 visits were paid by the
Inspectors (District and Special) in connection with cases of infectious disease reported
during the year.* This number shows a considerable increase in comparison with the totals
for 1902 (3,341) and 1901 (1,855), the increase being mainly due to the fact that greater
vigilance has been given to cases of measles. The totals for the various quarters of last year
were:—1st quarter, 1,012 visits; 2nd, 1,004; 3rd (School and Staff Holidays), 988; 4th,
1,081.
When patients are treated at home "letters of advice"—covering extracts from Acts
of Parliament relating to the infectious diseases and memorandum of precautions necessary
to prevent the spread of infection—are issued. Last year 60 such letters were sent out compared
with 114 in 1902. To nurses and women attending cases of puerperal fever special
cautionary letters are issued. Of these 4 only were required last year, compared with 19 in
the previous. The Staff of the Department disinfected 1,970 rooms during the year, compared
with 1,620 in 1902, and 1,227 in 1901.
Hospital Work.—The number of patients removed to the various hospitals receiving
cases of infectious illness decreased from 632 in 1902 to 549 in 1903. The greater number
of such patients were removed to the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, which
were able to receive cases of every description without any delay throughout the year.
The accommodation provided by the Board at the close of the year comprised 7,031
beds (4,991 for "fever" cases and 2,040 for small-pox). In addition thereto the construction
of hospitals to provide 1,288 other beds for "fever" cases has been authorised, and the works
are now in hand. The following is a summary statement of the beds provided or projected
(in hand):—
For "fever" (diphtheria and scarlet, typhus and enteric (typhoid) fevers)—
Permanent accommodation provided—acute cases 4,243 beds in 9 hospitals.
convalescent 748 „ 1 hospital.
Accommodation to be provided acute cases† 488 „ 1 „
convalescent‡ 800 „ 1 „
For small-pox—
Permanent accommodation provided, acute and convalescent
cases 2,040 „ 3 hospitals.
There are also 1,850 beds at the Gore Farm (Upper and Lower) Hospitals at present
not allocated to any disease. These hospitals were erected to receive small-pox cases, but
in view of, the large provision available in the other three hospitals these two hospitals have
been set apart for other purposes. It has been suggested that they should be devoted to the
treatment of tuberculous patients, but the Managers have declined to undertake this new
work until the Local Government Board has given an opinion on the point.
* The visits touching deaths and cases of consumption, infantile diarrhœa, and the so-called ' minor ' infectious
diseases (measles, whooping cough, &c.,) numbered 3,159, the cases (deaths) of each disease being (approximately):—
Measles 560 Consumption 163
Whooping Cough 335 Infantile Diarrhoea 67
Chicken-pox 131 Puerperal Fever 3
| South-Eastern Hospital in course of re-construction. The accommodation here will be increased from 408
beds to 488. ‡ Southern Hospital in course of construction.