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21
A number of visits were paid to all the houses from time to time by officers of the
department and the attention of the person in charge or the London County Council
directed to any matter calling for remedy.
Underground Rooms.—The difficulties referred to in the Annual Report of
1919 in regard to rooms of this type continued to be encountered in 1920. As close
supervision as possible was kept over such rooms and whenever possible notices to
discontinue occupation were served. The total number dealt with in this way was 6.
C.—PREMISES THAT ARE NOT BUT SHOULD BE
REGISTERED.
For a variety of reasons the number of premises in the Borough in which meals
are provided or food is sold ready cooked or is prepared for sale is very large. At the
end of 1920 there were 564, this number including: restaurant, dining room and
coffee shop kitchens, 150; tea-rooms and pastry-cooks, 56; hotel kitchens, 44; fried
fish shops, 25; and fish-curers, 5. In addition, there were a number of shops in
which meat, ham, sausages, &c., were cooked and sold only over the counter.
The routine practice of visiting a number of restaurants, &c., each week was
continued by the Food Inspector, and any matters discovered dealt with at once.
In 1920 the total number of inspections was 1,143, the number of notices served
being 18.
Food Stalls.—Of these there are considerable numbers in the market streets,
particularly Great Titchfield Street, Bell Street, Church Street, Blandford Street,
&c.
Definite arrangements are made for the keeping of such as are used for the sale
of food under close observation. Throughout 1920 visits were paid to all the market
streets every day, a special feature being made of Saturday night and Sunday
morning inspections.
SCHOOLS.
The following remarks were contained in the Report for 1919 and are
reproduced here in the hope that they may attract attention to a matter of
considerable importance not only from the health but the financial point of view.
The Medical Officer of Health of a Borough in the Metropolis is not school
medical officer. The work in connection with both schools and school children is
entirely in the hands of the London County Council and their officers, the local
medical officer of health having little or nothing to do with it. In no part of the
kingdom, indeed, is the divorce between the general public health work and school
medical work so complete as in the Metropolis, and since it is impossible to see any
justification for it on public health grounds, certainly, and probably also on economic
grounds, it is difficult to see why either the central government authorities or the
local authorities have for so long acquiesced in the arrangement.
tor the reason that this question of re-organization of public health in London
is under consideration and this as well as other anomalies are or will soon be under
discussion, it is not proposed to take it up here. It may be stated, however, that
because of the existence of the two authorities there is frequently duplication of work,
a quite unnecessary and excessive amount of interchange of correspondence and
from time to time cross-purposes. All of which is contrary to the best interests of
the public health locally and particularly to those of the children.