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(b) That a copy of the report be forwarded to each Metropolitan
Medical Officer of Health for his information.
(Signed) W. M. Acworth,
Chairman.
Norfolk House,
Norfolk Street, Strand, W.C.,
23rd May, 1898.
Health Department,
Vestry Hall, Pancras Road, N.W.,
June 4th, 1898.
T. Duncombe Mann, Esq.,
Clerk to the Metropolitan Asylums Board,
Norfolk House, Norfolk Street,
Strand, W.C.
Sir,
Notification from Hospitals.
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 26th ult.,
enclosing a report of the Statistical Committee of the Metropolitan Asylums
Board, dated 11th May, 1898, in reference to Medical Certificates of
notifiable Infectious Diseases referring to inmates of Hospitals, which are
provided for by Section 55 (1) (b.) of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, the last paragraph of which runs "and where the Certificate refers to
the inmate of a hospital it shall specify the place from which and the date
at which the inmate was brought to the hospital, and shall be sent to the
Medical Officer of Health of the District in which the said place is situated."
The Committee support your interpretation that the Certificate is to be sent
to the Medical Officer of Health of the place from whence the patient is
removed to the hospital, and not to the Medical Officer of Health of the
District in which the hospital stands, and add that the obvious reason for
this provision is that where a patient developes infectious disease within a
short time after admission to hospital it may be assumed that the disease
was contracted before admission, but that the utility of such notification is
not apparent in the case of patients resident for a considerable time in the
hospital. The Committee further add that it is desirable that the Medical
Officer of Health of the District should be made aware of any outbreak of
infectious disease in a hospital within it, and that this may be met by
obtaining the lay notification under Section 55 (1) (a.) instead of the medical
certificate.
Allow me with all deference to ask, with regard to the last expression
of opinion of the Committee, whether a hospital is included in the term
"house," also whether the notice is intended to be a medical notice, or
medically authenticated, although possibly regarded as a lay notice. I
would point out that unless the notice is either a Medical Certificate or is