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68 ADMINISTRATIVE WORK.
ADMINISTRATIVE WORK.
The usual summary of the principal items of work accomplished by the District Inspectors
during the year is given in Table 43 (page 80). Further summaries will be found in the Appendix
A, Tables XI. (Food, Housing and Miscellaneous Matters) and XII. (Workshop Supervision).
Prevention of Infectious Disease.—The District Inspectors made 1,976 calls last
year in connection with the notified diseases, other than puerperal fever and pulmonary tuberculosis,
as compared with 1,812 in 1911, 2,098 in 1910, and 3,010 in 1909. The total number of
patients removed to hospital was 523 last year, 435 in 1911, 406 in 1910, and 797 in 1909. The
number of patients treated at home increased from 24 in 1911 to 53 last year, the greater part of
the increase being due to the number of " carrier cases " of diphtheria certified as "diphtheria "
but not removed to hospital.
In connection with puerperal fever and pulmonary tuberculosis, both of which are scheduled
for notification, and the non-notified infectious diseases, the Women Inspectors made 4,441 calls
during the year, as compared with 5,520 in 1911, 5,181 in 1910, and 3,315 in 1909. The
reduction in the number of calls recorded last year was mainly due to diminished prevalence of
diarrhoea, mpasles, and whooping cough. There was a very large increase in the number of visits
for pulmonary tuberculosis (consumption). A tabular statement of the calls made during the
past four years in connection with the more important diseases is given below.
1912. 1911. 1910. 1909. 1912. 1911. 1910. 1909.
Measles 1,425 1,846 3,051 1,005 Chickenpox 557 545 461 285
Whooping Cough 395 793 430 479 Diarrhoea 433 1,369 410 546
Consumption 1,608 959 807 991 Puerperal Fever 23 8 22 9
The total number of calls made annually by the Women Inspectors has increased from 6,325
in 1909 to 7,279 in 1910, 7,332 in 1911, and 10,627 last year. The differences between the
numbers given in this and the preceding paragraph represent work in connection with ringworm,
scabies, "sore throats," and other illnesses for which no satisfactory explanation is forthcoming,
and dirty and verminous conditions in school children. The demand for such visitation stands
at a fairly uniformly high level throughout the year, as appears from the figures given below.
Quarters. 1. 2. 3. 4.
1912 2,644 2,837 2,322 2,824
1911 2,028 1,863 2,133 1,308
1910 1,878 2,425 1,493 1,483
1909 1,539 1,905 1,488 1,393
Preventive work which deals with the health of school children offers the best prospect of
permanent good, and such work is steadily increasing in amount. The extension of notification
to all forms of tuberculosis will involve a great increase in the amount of administrative work
of the Department, work which it is believed can be best done by the Women Inspectors. The
demands on the time of the present staff of two women in connection with disease has
necessitated the abandonment by them of other work, such as the supervision of workshops
where women are employed and the visiting of the mothers of new-born children, the former
being carried out by the Workshop Inspector (male) and the latter by the School for Mothers.
During the year 107 patients suffering from measles (74), whooping cough (32), and
chicken-pox (1) were removed to the Hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, being 5 in
excess of the number admitted in 1911, the first year that the Hospitals received such cases.
The "warning letters" sent to midwives and others having the care of patients suffering from
puerperal fever numbered 6 last year, as compared with 4 in 1911 and 1910 and 1 in 1909.