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8
With regard to the care of premature infants, of 141 born during the
year, 16 died, of whom 14 were born and died in hospital. The services
of a consulting pediatrician are available for any medical practitioner
attending premature infants at home but his services were not called
during the year.
There was an increase in the notified cases of Tuberculosis and in
the deaths, but as the population was markedly greater the mortality
rates for this disease had in fact fallen. Details relating to Mass
Radiography and Allowances are given later in this Report.
At the request of the Ministry of Health arrangements for the medical
inspection of aliens was resumed in December, 1947. This is a procedure
usually carried out at sea and airports. In this instance the train ferry
service from Paris, through Dunkirk to Dover, enables passengers to
sleep undisturbed by customs enquiries until they are deposited on the
platform at Victoria. The duties of inspection are carried out as before
the war with the assistance of part-time medical officers.
Features of special importance in the work of the Sanitary Inspectors
were the inspection of food premises and the resumption of house to house
inspections under the Inspection of District Regulations, 1936. The
additional Inspector appointed for the purpose of the supervision of catering
establishments and other food premises took up his duties on 1st March,
1947. Now that there are two inspectors devoting the whole of their
time to the work, much of the war-time arrears are being overtaken and
satisfactory progress is being made in maintaining good standards in
restaurants and other food premises.
The Inspectors were relieved of duties relating to the search for empty
properties for housing purposes on 1st November, 1947, and were thus
enabled to resume the routine inspection of houses fallen into abeyance
during and for some time after the war. In April 5 Inspectors were
allocated to this work. The task has proved particularly heavy and
progress necessarily slow, as obviously much deterioration had taken place
in the years of war and repairs by reason of various restrictions and
shortages could not readily be put in hand.
The campaign to clear premises from rats actively continues. Special
surveys were made of the Covent Garden area, mostly business premises
and of dwellings in the Victoria Ward. In business premises recovery
of expenses from the owner is made when rats are found and cleared.
In dwelling houses the cost falls on the local authority aided by grant
from the Ministry of Food.
At the time of writing some 130 members of the Department havf
been transferred to London County Council and to the Regional Hospital
Board. All the transactions relating to the transfer of staff and premises
have naturally caused some measure of interference in the smooth running
of the Department and explains why this Report is somewhat delayed in