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Infectious Disease:
Number of visits paid (including contacts) 921
Number of notices served:
Informal 381
Statutory 125
The main headings under which work was done may be noted as
follows:
Smoke Control Areas 4,910 visits
General Sanitation 3,878
Inspection of Food and Premises 2,954
Housing 2,627
Infectious Diseases 921 „
Shops Act Inspections 607 ,,
Factories and Outworkers 363 ,,
Public Health Inspectors' Work.
A perusal of the visit headings gives a fairly accurate general
impression of the emphasis devoted by the staff to various aspects of
their work. It shows, for example, the routine work carried out year
by year with but little divergence in the figures. It shows markedly
the attention devoted to any new endeavour such as Smoke Control.
It shows perhaps above all the remarkable diversity of endeavour which
the Public Health Inspector is called upon to make within the scope
of his duties. The change of name from 'Sanitary' to 'Public Health'
Inspector may have suggested a certain upgrading of status. However
fashionable it may now be to provide a more attractive verbal clothing
for a post it should not be lost sight of that—consistent with modern
progress—the duties of the post basically remain the same. The erstwhile
'Sanitary Inspector' had no reason to be embarrassed either about his
calling or of its title. He did a grand job of work in the field of
preventive medicine the fruits of which are now evident in the improved
environmental standards obtaining throughout the country. Preventive
medicine is seldom likely to become as glamorous as curative medicine
but the Public Health Inspector is a member of a team still essential
to our present day well being and his contribution to that team requires
no exaggeration to emphasise its worth.
Shops Act, 1950.
The number of shops on the register at the end of the year was
1,189.
Forty-seven notices were served during the year regarding contraventions
of the Act.