View report page

55
EDMONTON URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL.
REPORT
For the YEAR 1918
of the
Chief Sanitary Inspector
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Edmonton, N. 9.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Edmonton Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Mrs. Benjafield and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you my Report oil the work carried
out by your Sanitary Inspectors and staff during the year 1918.
The work of the year has been very arduous with a depleted staff, and the
difficult task of getting even the most important work done was very trying.
I earnestly hope that the coming year will enable us to get some of the projierty
into something like a decent state of repair, for the conditions in some
instances are appalling.
The laws of Public Health become more and more complex, and the need
for consolidation and amendment is more felt. Especially does it apply to
that ever vexed question of what is, or is not, a " sewer," although a great
deal has been done in the reconstruction of old sewers and combined drains
in the past by the Council, and by owners, at the present legal difficulties are
continually cropping up. The Council may be legally liable in some cases,
but in the majority it is morally the owner's liability, and I hope ere long the
question will be definitely settled. Perhaps the proposed new Ministry of
Health will, amongst other things, help us in this direction
REMOVAL OF PATIENTS TO HOSPITAL, AND DISINFECTIONS.
This year records the first motor vehicle to be adopted by the Council,
i.e., an ambulance for the removal of patients to hospital, and although the
Council did not purchase a new motor ambulance, but had one of their old