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22
aware that the patient is suffering from an infectious disease
to which this section applies, send to the Medical Officer of
Health for the district a certificate, stating the full name and
the age and sex of the patient, the full postal address of the
house, and the infectious disease from which, in the opinion
of such medical practitioner, the patient is suffering, and
stating also whether the case occurs in the private practice
of such practitioner, or in his practice as a medical officer of
any public body or institution, and where the certificate
refers to the inmate of a hospital it shall specify the place
from which and the date at which the inmate was brought
to the hospital, and shall be sent to the Medical Officer of the
district in which the said place is situate.
The words which we have printed in italics in the above quotation
are those which give rise to controversy ; but it appears
to us that the words admit of no other interpretation than
that, wherever a place is situated whence a patient is admitted
to a hospital, the notification certificate must be sent
to the medical officer of that place, and not to the medical
officer of the district in which the hospital stands.
In cases where a patient developes an infectious disease within a
short time after admission to hospital, it may reasonably be
assumed that the disease was contracted before admission,
and obviously, in the interests of public health, the notification
of the case should be made, as the Act directs, to the
Medical Officer of Health of the district in which the patient
had been previously resident. But the utility of such a
notification is not so apparent in cases where the patient has
been resident in the hospital for a considerable time.
In either case undoubtedly it is desirable that the Medical Officer
of Health of the district within which the hospital is situate
should be made aware of any outbreak of infectious disease
therein. But in our view this is met by section 55 (1) (a)
which provides that where an inmate of any house within
the district of a sanitary authority is suffering from an infectious
disease " the head of the family to which such
inmate (in this section referred to as the patient) belongs,
and in his default the nearest relatives of the patient present
in the house or being in attendance on the patient, and in
default of such relatives, every person in charge of or in
attendance on the patient, and, in default of any such
person, the master of the house, shall, as soon as he becomes
aware that the patient is suffering from an infectious disease
to which this section applies, send notice thereof to the
Medical Officer of Health of the district."
The Managers will observe that the Act requires two things—a
certificate from a medical practitioner, and notice from the