London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Southgate 1946
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southgate]
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Sanitary Services
Sanitary Inspections, 1946:—
| Housing inspections and re-inspections | 3,689 |
| Registered premises, including factories, workshops, bakehouses, milk shops and other food shops, visits and inspections | 1,034 |
| Infectious Desease, visits and inspections | 1,870 |
| Miscellaneous visits and inspections, including various complaints, rats and mice infestations, ditches and ponds, non-notifiable diseases, etc. | 9,397 |
| Visits re verminous premises | 94 |
| Visits re nuisances from flies, etc. | 5,128 |
| 21,212 |
Service of Notices:—
Total informal sanitary notices served 957
Total informal dustbin notices served 575
Total informal notices served 1,532
Total informal notices complied with 1,244
Total statutory notices served 123
Total statutory notices complied with 116
As has been the case for the past few years, the work of the
Sanitary Inspectors continues to be made more difficult by existing
shortages and controls. The service of a notice, which in pre-war
years was virtually tantamount to necessary work being carried out,
no longer carries the same guarantee. This is particularly unfortunate,
since it means that the leeway which five years of war has
created, cannot yet be made up. The result is ever-increasing
dilapidations, dilapidations which can only receive attention when
they become sufficiently serious to represent an immediate danger
to health. The effect upon the health of householders when work
of a less serious nature has had to stand in abeyance is none the less
unfortunate, more so as we know that the danger exists but cannot
do much to overcome it.
It became obvious during 1946 that the sanitary staff was
insufficient to cope with the work in hand. Bearing in mind the
conditions set out in the paragraph above, it will not surprise
anyone to learn that the number of complaints received from day to
day has risen appreciably over the past few years; nor will it be
surprising that the eradication of a nuisance occupies a very much
longer time to-day than was the case before the war. Added to this
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