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95
The Third Clerk (Mr. Hayes) is responsible for all the clerical work relating to
infectious disease, such as keeping the various registers under the Public Health
Act and the Tuberculosis Regulations, 1908-11, the index relating thereto, the
disinfection records and the correspondence with the Metropolitan Asylums Boaid,
the London County Council and the School Authorities in connection therewith.
The General Assistant (Mr. Harris) acts as messenger, assists in drain testing,
attends to complaint book, copies and indexes letters. He makes all the necessary
preparations for sampling under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, and attends to
most of the clerical work arising out of the administration of these Acts. He also
does a portion of the work as regards sanitary notices and is in attendance at the
office when the Health Committee meets.
All the above officers assist as regards the Annual Report relating to the work
of the Department. When necessary, they may be called upon to render assistance
in respect to any portion of the clerical work of the Department.
It need, perhaps, hardly be stated that there has been an enormous increase in
the clerical work, as compared with what it was 15 to 20 years ago. It
could then be done without effort by one clerk and a general assistant. Now, the
existing staff have much difficulty in coping with the routine work of the Department,
although, as has been pointed out, the amount oi notifiable infectious disease
during the past 2 years has been markedly below the average. Last year a great
and a permanent increase was made in the amount of clerical work, owing to the
Tuberculosis in Hospitals Regulations. The extent of this may be gauged by the
fact that, whereas the average number of communications, written and printed, sent
out from the department was 13,293 annually for the 4 years ending 1910, it rose
to 16,520 in 1911. This increase was due to the regulations mentioned almost entirely,
and the regulations did not come into operation until May.
The difficulty as regards the work has been engaging my attention during the
past 2 years. Certain re-adjustments of the duties between the officers have had
to be made to meet it. To the Health Visitor has been transferred the responsibility
for the register of births notified. This was necessary to relieve Mr. Abbott, who
had been doing part of this work. To relieve Mr. Hayes it was necessary to transfer
all the clerical work under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts to Mr. Harris. Notwithstanding
there is still a marked tendency for some of the work to get in arrear.
I have made a point of going very carefully into what each of the officers does,
with a view to ascertaining, as far as practicable, how their time is taken up, and
where economies, if possible, can be effected. There is no doubt that it takes them
practically all their time to get through their work now. There is little or no margin
for emergencies, and in the event even of an average prevalence of infectious disease,
it would be impossible for the work to be done within the usual office hours. A
material saving of time can, however, be effected by making an alteration in the
existing system of copying intimation notices which are served under the Public