London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Paddington 1906
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
This page requires JavaScript
42
ADMINISTRATIVE WORK.
Grouping the institutions according to the sources of their income, from the rates or from
voluntary contributions, it appears that 20.8 per cent. of all the deaths took place last year in
rate-supported and 11.5 in other classes of institutions. In 1905 the percentages were 19.3
and 10.1 respectively. The percentages of the deaths in the different classes of institutions
are given below, the figures for 1905 being indicated in parentheses and italics.
| Deaths. | Percentage of all Deaths. | |
|---|---|---|
| Hospitals of Metropolitan Asylums Board | 35 (13) | 1.9 (0.6) |
| Poor Law Workhouses and Infirmaries | 307 (318) | 16.6 (16.2) |
| Lunatic Asylums | 43 (49) | 2.3 (2.5) |
| Hospitals and Homes (but not private nursing homes) | 212(199) | 11.5 (10.1) |
ADMINISTRATIVE WORK.*
Prevention of Infectious Diseases.—The visits made by the Staff for various purposes
in connection with infectious diseases, notified and others, numbered 4,388 last year, as compared
with 5,107 in 1905, and 4,652 in 1904, rather more than half of them (2,330) by the
Women and Student Inspectors with reference to the following diseases:—
Measles 853 Chicken-pox 323 "Consumption" 558
Whooping Cough 221 Infantile Diarrhœa 136 Puerperal Fever 35
The visits were more numerous in the third and fourth quarters of the year than in the others—an unusual experience, due to the prevalence of scarlet fever during the latter half of the year.
| Quarters | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1906 | 765 | 1,069 | 1,376 | 1,178 |
| 1905 | 1,092 | 2,096 | 964 | 955 |
| 1904 | 1,732 | 872 | 801 | 1,247 |
The total number of patients removed to hospital during the year was 882, compared
with 387 in 1905, and 478 in 1904. When a patient remains at home, a "letter of advice"
covering extracts from the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and the Factory Act, 1901, and
a Memorandum of precautions to be taken, appropriate to the particular disease, is sent to
the parent, guardian, or person in charge of the patient. Sixty-seven (67) such letters were
dispatched during the year, compared with 44 in 1905, and 72 in 1904. A special communication
is addressed to the midwife and (or) nurse in charge of each case of puerperal fever,
8 such communications being issued in 1906, while in 1905 only 2 were required, but in 1904,8.
Hospital Accommodation.—The Metropolitan Asylums Board has made a slight
re-arrangement of the accommodation available, allocating to convalescent cases of (scarlet)
"fever" some of the beds originally provided for smallpox. The accommodation available at
the close of the year was—
For "fever" (diphtheria and scarlet, typhus and enteric (typhoid) fevers)—
Acute case 4,827 beds in 10 hospitals.
Convalescent 3,349 ,, 4† ,,
*Table 29 gives a summary of the principal works executed under the supervision of the District InspectorsTabular
summaries of the work of the other Inspectors will be found under "Housing," "Workshops," etc.
†One hospital (The Southern, at Carshalton—800 beds) not yet open.