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4
MASS MINIATURE
RADIOGRAPHY.
The Mass Miniature Radiography Unit
visited the Area in the Autumn of 1953 and
some 5,300 persons were X-rayed; this was
apart from visits paid by the Unit to large factories in the Borough.
During the past year occasion has not arisen for instituting any
special tuberculosis case-finding surveys.
LAUNDRY SERVICE FOR
THE INCONTINENT AGED.
The Public Health Act 1936,
Section 84, dealing with the
cleansing of filthy articles gives
power to Local Sanitary Authorities to cleanse at the Authority's
expense any article which, upon a certificate of the Medical Officer
of Health or Sanitary Inspector, requires to be cleansed in order
to prevent injury or danger to the health of any persons in the
premises.
Aged people who may be neither sick nor well are often incontinent
and the provision of a municipal laundry service (within
the terms of Section 84) for such persons is of great benefit. It
will, of course, be appreciated that private laundries offer no
facilities for these cases.
With the co-operation of the Ilford and Barking Hospital
Management Committee the Council were able to inaugurate a
service in December, 1953. Only bedding and personal clothing
which have been soiled with excreta or urine are accepted for
laundering. A small covered metal bin is provided for use at each
home and after soiled articles have been rinsed and hand wrung
they are placed in the bin to await collection. Soiled articles are
collected and laundered articles returned each Monday. Wednesday
and Friday morning.
At the time of writing this report 21 cases have been helped
by the service; 11 of these have died, 5 have been removed to
hospital and 5 are still participating; the number of articles
laundered is 3,445.
SLAUGHTERHOUSES.
Prior to the Ministry of Food taking
over control of slaughtering in 1940,
there were four slaughterhouses operating in the Borough. At that
time applications under Section 57, Food and Drugs Act 1938, in
respect of each slaughterhouse, had already been considered. Two
licences were granted but in the intervening years the licences have
lapsed (one of the premises was destroyed by enemy action the
other has been utilised for a different purpose). Of the remaining
two premises one application was refused as the premises were considered
altogether unsuitable, and consideration of the other was
deferred pending repairs and alterations.