View report page

49
It is considered advisable that gum elastic catheters and syringes should be
destroyed and replaced by the Sanitary Authority. Metal and other articles
which will not be injured by the process should be boiled. The lining of the
bag should be removed and destroyed, while the bag itself should be washed
with corrosive sublimate (1 in 1000) or other equally efficient disinfectant.
Suggested Form of Certificate.
I Hereby Certify that who has
recently been in attendance upon a patient suffering from "Puerperal Fever"
has undergone personal cleansing and disinfection, and that her clothing,
instruments, and other apparatus have been disinfected by the Sanitary
Authority to my satisfaction.
(Signed)
Medical Officer of Health.
The Central Midwives Board have made new rules for "E—regulating,
supervising, and restricting within due limits the practice of Midwives,"
which bear no date, except the printer's date, 8/07, and paragraph 5 runs—
"Whenever a Midwife has been in attendance upon a patient suffering from
puerperal fever, or from any other illness supposed to be infectious, she must
disinfect herself and all her instruments and other appliances, to the satisfaction
of the Local Supervising Authority, and must have her clothing thoroughly
disinfected before going to another labour. Unless otherwise directed by the
Local Supervising Authority, all washable clothing should be boiled, and other
clothing should be sent to be disinfected by the Local Sanitary Authority."
The form of certificate adopted in St. Pancras in 1903 was set out in the
Annual Report for 1904, page 44, under the heading of Contact with dangerous
infectious disease. In the printed "Notice to persons in contact with dangerous
infectious diseases," circulated in St. Pancras in connection with the Contact
Shelter the paragraph relating to midwives was as follows:—
A midwife, after attending upon a patient suffering from puerperal
fever or from any other illness supposed to be infectious, by the rules of
the Central Midwives Board, must disinfect herself and all her instruments
and other appliances to the satisfaction of the local Sanitary Authority,
and must have her clothing thoroughly disinfected before going to
another labour. For this purpose the baths and disinfecting chamber at
the Contact Shelter are available, and after cleansing and disinfection a
midwife is given a certificate to the effect that she has undergone personal
cleansing (including hair and nails) in a warm bath, that her personal
clothing has undergone disinfection or destruction, that her hands have
been specially disinfected by soaking in methylated spirit and in solution
of perchloride of mercury (1 in 1,000), and that the instruments brought
with her have been sterilised or destroyed, namely, the gum elastic
instruments and parts destroyed, metal and other articles steamed, the
lining of the bag destroyed and the rest of the bag washed with corrosive
sublimate solution.