London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
St Pancras 1958
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, Metropolitan Borough]
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Health Education
The Public Health Inspector, whether he be a District Inspector, a Factory
Inspector, a Food Inspector or in control of other special branches of public
health work has a far greater responsibility than that of inspection, the service
of notices and the taking out of summonses. His most valuable duty is to give
good advice and to teach those responsible how to abate nuisances in the quickest
and most economic way and to impart knowledge of better standards of hygiene in
the home the shop, the restaurant and the place of work.
To some extent the service of a summons in an acknowledgment of failure
failure to make the responsible person understand his obligations to those who
live in his property, or who work for him, or buy from him. It would be wrong
to measure success by the number of Court proceedings. In fact, Court proceedings
are diminishing year by year. This, however, is to some extent due to the fact
that, as a result of recent legislation, the Council has been enabled to take
action and remedy nuisances itself.
This procedure is adopted wherever the nuisance or '"defective state" is of
an urgent character. Many other nuisances, less urgent, are remedied by the
Borough Council where the landlord has failed, on account of financial or other
difficulties, to comply with sanitary notices.
The following table shows, for the past ten years, the number of summonses, the number of cases where the Council has done the work in default of the owner and the sums of money involved:-
| 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 117 | 194 | 230 | 165 | 144 | 117 | 104 | 62 | 50 | |
| - | - | - | - | 9 | 5 | 26 | 45 | 62 | |
| Cost | - | - | - | - | £849 | £677 | £1,677 | £2,299 | £1,783 |
Finance
The rateable value of the district has increased from £3, 388,177 in April,
1957, to £3,464,582 in April, 1958, whilst the product of the 1d rate has
increased from £13.260 to £13.800.
Meteorological
1958 was a rainy year, with 32.99 inches of rainfall, compared to 22.35
inches in 1957 and it rained on 167 days, as compared to 154 days in 1957.
Vital Statistics
The number of live births in 1958 was 2, 280 as compared with 2,227 in 1957,
the birth rate being 17 43 per cent. as compared to 16.87 per cent. in 1957.
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