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44
ADMINISTRATIVE WORK.
For small-pox—
Acute and convalescent cases ... 2,040 beds in 3 hospitals.
Altogether 10,216 beds have been provided for the needs of the Metropolis. The usual
standard of accommodation, for all classes of infectious diseases, is one bed to each 1,000
inhabitants, on which scale 4,700 beds should suffice. Seeing that more than double that
provision has been made it may be anticipated that further extension of the Board's accommodation
will be unnecessary for many years.
Disinfection.—The disinfection and cleansing of infected bedding, &c., has been carried
out by the Contractor as in previous years. The weight of goods so treated was just on 56
tons, as compared with 67 tons in 1905 and 57 in 1904. The cost of the work was £1,148
as compared with £1,392 and £1,181 in the two preceding years. No difficulty was experienced
in the collection of goods for disinfection. Complaints have been rare, and when
received have been promptly attended to—to the satisfaction of the complainants—by the
Contractor.
The rooms disinfected by the Department after all forms of infectious diseases numbered
2,166, as compared with 2,662 in 1905 and 1,795 in 1904. No notices were required to secure
the cleansing or whitewashing of premises after infectious illness.
In the last report reference was made to the abandonment of a scheme for establishing a
disinfection station in Kensal Road, and to communications with the Council of the Royal
Borough of Kensington for a joint user of the station then in course of erection for that
Borough. Those communications proved fruitless, and further enquiries were made during
the past year for sites both within and without this Borough. Ultimately an offer was
received of a freehold site on which stand buildings used for some years as a private disinfecting
station. The offer was before the Council at the close of the year, and has since been
provisionally accepted. Plans and estimates have been prepared and are at the time of
writing before the Local Government Board, with a view to the sanctioning of a loan. If all
goes well, the Council should be, before the close of the current year, in possession of a station
situate some four miles beyond the boundary of the Borough, but readily accessible therefrom,
fitted with all the necessary plant for disinfecting and cleansing all classes of infected
goods.
Section 60 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, requires the Council to provide and
maintain a place where persons displaced from their dwellings during the disinfection thereof,
may be accommodated until such disinfection be completed. Such a "shelter," frequently
necessary when the disinfection of rooms was affected by the burning of sulphur or other
chemical, a process requiring twenty-four hours for its completion, was provided in 1895, and
was used to a considerable extent for some years after. With the substitution of spraying
by formaldehyde for sulphur fumigation, the time required for the disinfection of a room has
been reduced to a couple of hours at the most, and the "shelter" has in consequence fallen
out of use. No one has been received there for the past four years. The only use made of it
during the past year has been to provide bathing accommodation for certain midwives or
nurses who have had charge of cases of puerperal fever, and have not had proper bathing
accommodation in their own homes.
Water Supply.—The notices of discontinuance of a water supply, sent by the Metropolitan
Water Board to the Council in pursuance of the provisions of Section 49 (1) of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, increased from 102 in 1905 to 141 last year, the highest