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bodies were admitted to Queens Road Mortuary. Walthamstow on instructions of H. M. Coroner.
With the co-operation of Hackney Borough Council facilities are made available at
the Cleansing Centre. Millfields Road, Hackney for the treatment of Leyton patients
suffering with scabies or verminous conditions. During the year three residents availed
themselves for treatment and made four attendances.
The arrangements entered into with Walthamstow Borough Council for the disinfection
of bedding at the Walthamstow Disinfecting Station have continued and are eminently
satisfactory.
In January 1957 the premises at the rear of 280 High Road, Leyton were converted and
adapted for use as a laundry for the incontinent. The service is operated by handymen
attached to the Department, and there is no doubt of the value of the service to the
relatives or friends of patients who had difficulty in the laundering of foul linen and
personal clothing. During the year the service has been made available to the County
Borough of West Ham Public Health Department on a financial arrangement. In 1957 a total
of 115 individual launderings involving 1417 articles took place.
In February 1957 I submitted a report to the Public Health Committee and in fact
to all members of the Council on the housing for the elderly. This is dealt with in the
body of the report, and I am pleased to record that at the time of writing one house at
81 Bushwood has been adapted and houses several elderly people plus a Housemother and
two other houses are in process of being adapted for a similar purpose.
The diagnosis of cases of smallpox in Tottenham and Walthamstow resulted in an
increase in the number of people wishing to be vaccinated. Local medical practitioners and
the clinics were inundated with such requests, and it appears that a high vaccinal state
of the population can only be achieved by sporadic outbreaks of the disease.
Many contacts of the cases notified in neighbouring areas were kept under surveillance
by the staff of the department.
Vaccination against poliomyelitis continued throughout the year and although many
administrative difficulties were encountered due to the change in policy with respect to
types of vaccine available approximately 50 per cent, of those children eligible for
registration were in fact registered and had been vaccinated by mid summer of 1958.
The acceptance rate is still not satisfactory.
I am indebted to the Chief Public Health Inspector for his report on the sanitary
circumstances in the area.
By the mid summer of 1958 staff shortages had been resolved and we had a full estab
lishment for the first time for many years.
As will be seen from the comprehensive report contained herein a great deal of work
has taken place in respect of slum clearance and redevelopment areas and early in the
year the long formal procedure was satisfactorily concluded with the Minister's decision
on the Crescent Road area scheme.
This is the first of several slum clearance ventures with which the department is
confronted.
In connection with the Council's interest in the Clean Air Act and atmospheric
pollution in general impetus to the declaration of smoke control areas must be accelerated
by the report on the London fog of 2 5 December 1957. The high mortality due to air
pollution as existed in the weather conditions of those few days can be alleviated. The
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