London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Barking 1937

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Barking]

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25
SECTION B.
GENERAL PROVISION OF HEALTH SERVICES
FOR THE AREA.

1. GENERAL HEALTH SERVICES.

(a) Laboratory Facilities. — The following table shows the routine work which has been carried out by arrangement with the Essex County Council at the Counties' Public Health Laboratories, situated in Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C.4 :—

Specimen.Number examined.
Diphtheria1,309
Sputa265
Typhoid26
Milk48
Water11
General49
Total1,768

In addition to the above, 3 biological tests were carried out to test the
virulence or otherwise of germs of the diphtheria group, and similarly 2 biological
tests were carried out to test the presence or otherwise of tubercle bacilli.
In another section of the Report mention is made of similar biological work
carried out in respect of the presence of tubercle baccilli in milk.
The laboratory facilities which have been available in previous years have
been available throughout the year under review.
The Pathological Unit at the Barking Hospital, inaugurated in the autumn of
1935, has met a very real need.
In my previous Report I mentioned that this unit was in the charge of Dr. E. A.
Straker, your Consulting Pathologist, and that in addition Dr. E. M. Hill had been
appointed as a full-time Scientist. Dr. E. A. Straker resigned her appointment
during the year to take up another elsewhere, and I am happy to say that Dr. Hill
has ably carried on since. She has been in constant touch with the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, acting as a liaison between that body and ours.
Since its inauguration the scope and work undertaken by this unit has increased,
and new channels of co-operation have been opened. I am thus happy to say this
unit has fulfilled the purpose for which it was started.