London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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St George (Southwark) 1895

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, The Vestry of the Parish of St. George the Martyr]

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Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
In 1895 the sum in fees paid to medical practitioners for notifying 456 infectious
cases in St. George's amounted to £46 5s. 6d.
This amount, paid in the first instance by your Vestry, is recouped by the
Asylums Board, and charged to the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund. 46 per cent.
of the total number of cases notified in the parish during 1895 were removed to the
Asylums Board and other hospitals. During 1892, 67 per cent., in 1893, 34 per cent.,
and in 1894, 44 per cent. of such cases were treated in these institutions.
The decrease of admissions during 1893, 1894, and 1895 was due to the overcrowded
state of the hospitals. My experience of the past year shows that there is
urgent need for further hospital accommodation for infectious diseases.
It is important to bear in mind that prompt isolation alone can obviate the danger
resulting from the detention of infectious patients in so poor and densely packed a
district as St. George's.
During the year the list of notifiable diseases has received several important
additions, to wit, anthrax and cases of poisioning by lead, arsenic, and phosphorus.
These notifications do not come under the Infectious Diseases (Notification)
Act, 1889, but are made under the new Factories and Workshop Act.
They are paid for at the rate of 2s. 6d. per case, as a charge upon the Public
Funds, and not at the cost of the Local Authorities. In this way, the notifying of
diseases, which are for the most part industrial, is distributed evenly among poor
and wealthy districts. A similar soundness of principle, however, does not in any
way extend to the further condition that these new notifications must be made
direct to the Chief Inspector of Factories. Such a course means that the Medical
Officer of Health is kept in official ignorance of the existence of diseases that
swell the mortality of his district.
Falcon Court and Neighbourhood.
I am glad to be able to report that in the near future there is every likelihood
that the present area of Falcon Court and its neighbourhood will be swept away, and
that this unwholesome area will be wholly or partially replaced by an open-air
space.
In that case it is to be earnestly hoped that a portion will be set apart as a playground
for children, the need of which I have urged upon your Vestry, as well as
upon the London County Council, in my annual reports for several years past. The
scheme about to be submitted to the Local Government Board will be found at page
57 of the Appendix.
* * * * *
In concluding this report, I may once again congratulate your Vestry on another
year of progress in health matters.
There has been a fall of .2 per 1,000 in the death-rate, which has reached a lower
point than any on record during the past half century. It is gratifying to be able to
point to a solid and practical result of this kind, in view of the ever-increasing load
of work and responsibility which is cast upon Local Authorities and their Medical
Officer of Health.
So long as I am honoured with the confidence of your Vestry it will be my
earnest endeavour to carry out the duties of the important office with which I have
been entrusted, with all necessary care and vigilance.
I have the honour to be,
Your obedient Servant,
F. J. WALDO,
Medical Officer of Health.
1 Plowden Buildings, Temple,
January, 1896.

List of Slaughter-houses licensed by the London County Council, in October, 1895.

Name.Situation.
Farmer, John264, Old Kent Road
Redman, Frederick146, High Street, Borough
Rowe, John73, London Road
Trask, William S.11, Bermondsey New Road
Waters, Frederick79, Old Kent Road