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In forwarding the Regulations for 1911, the Local Government Board point
out that the principle of compulsory notification which was embodied in the
Regulations of 1908 has been justified by experience, and it is now generally
recognised as affording valuable aid in securing effective administrative
measures in relation to tuberculosis. A considerable number of Sanitary
Authorities have advocated the immediate adoption of a scheme of notification
of all cases of tuberculosis. But the Board feel that the object which they
have in view can be most surely attained if the procedure is by stages and by
a steady development of administrative machinery.
The new Order, which is dated the 22nd March, 1911, takes effect from
the 1st May, 1911. The most important provisions are as follows : —
Notifications by Medial Officers of Hospitals and transmission of notifications by
Medical Officers of Health.
Article IV. of the Order imposes the duty of notification upon the Medical
Officer who is in medical attendance upon the patient at the hospital.
The notification must be sent within 48 hours after the first recognition of
the disease.
The notification is to be sent to the Medical Officer of Health for the area in
which the hospital is situate. Article IV. (2) directs that a Medical Officer of
Health who receives a notification relating to a patient, whose residence as
described in the notification is not within the area for which he is Medical
Officer of Health, shall without delay transmit the notification to the Medical
Officer of Health for the area in which the patient's residence appears to be
situate, at the same time informing the Medical Officer of the Hospital that he
has done so.
In other words, each Authority acts as a distributing centre for the hospitals
in its area.
Under Article IV. (3) the Medical Officer of Health for an area within the
Administrative County of London is required to send to the Medical Officer of
Health for the Administrative County of London a weekly statement of
notifications received by him under this Order, and also under the Public Health
(Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908, of patients whose residence is situate within
this area.
Remuneration of Medical Officers.
By Article VI. the remuneration of Medical Officers who are required to
make notifications under the Order is fixed at one shilling, which is the fee
payable to the Medical Officer of a public body or institution for a notification
under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891.
Provision for the Weltare of Patients.
Some of the provisions of the Public Health Act, 1875, and of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, relative to infectious disease are not usually
appropriate in cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. It is, therefore, provided by
Article VII. (1) that nothing in the Regulations shall have effect so as to apply
or to authorise anyone to put in force with respect to a person in relation to
whom a notification has been made any enactment which renders him or any
other person liable to a penalty, or subjects him to any restriction, prohibition,
or disability affecting him or his employment, occupation, means of livelihood,
or residence on the ground of his suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis.