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20 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
(d) Want of promtitude of the Asylums Board in the removal of cases.
With regard to the foregoing it may be stated that a Refuge House has been
established and is in working order; that an addition has been made in the staff of
disinfectors in the person of a superintending disinfector who, with his wife, is to live
in the Reception House; and that the question of the special inspector is still under
consideration. Lastly, the want of hospital accommodation in the Asylums Board
Hospitals is still a standing source of complaint. At the request of your Vestry in
January 1897, I drew up a Provsional Code of Rules for the guidance of the
Disinfectors. With some slight alterations and additions, chiefly verbal, the code has
been adopted and is now in force. (See p. 28).
Reception House.
This link in the preventive handling of infectious diseases is no less necessary
than the allied measures of notification, isolation and disinfection. In a poor and
crowded parish it is imperative to provide a temporary shelter for persons in whose
homes disinfection is being carried out.
It may be remarked that the fumigation of a room with sulphur and its subsequent
ventilation cannot be performed with due regard to the safety and comfort of the
inmates under a space of 24 hours. In this way disinfection, if thoroughly carried out,
entails the temporary dislodgment of families. Indeed, so great has been this drawback,
especially in the case of one and two-roomed tenements, that it has been
hitherto the custom in this Vestry to carry out disinfection during the day and to
allow the inmates to sleep in the disinfected rooms the same night. The provision of
a Reception House, however, now permits persons thus displaced to sleep therein for
one or two nights.
A further advantage of this arrangement is that it allows the Sanitary Authority
to cleanse or strip the walls in cases where such a proceeding may be deemed
necessary.
Lastly, the personal clothing of all who come into the Reception House may be
disinfected.
The rules for the guidance of the Caretaker and for the regulation of the inmates
have been drawn up by myself and approved by the Vestry. A copy of them will be
found in the Appendix (p. 31).
House to House Inspection.
The first section of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, directs that a house to
house inspection shall be made by the Local Authority. Such a visitation as that
intended by the framers of the Act, was for the first time in the history of this parish,
commenced in 1894.
During 1897 such inspections have been made of 1300 houses as against 1665 in
1896, and the results of such visits have been entered into the registers kept for the
purpose.
To repeat the words made use of for the last three years, I may, perhaps be
allowed to add my opinion that this system of house to house inspection is likely to
do more towards raising the general health standard of your district than any single
step yet taken by your Vestry.
Houses Let in Lodgings.
So far, 399 dwelling houses, inhabited by the poorest classes, have been registered
in conformity with the Bye-Laws.