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42
A programme was produced and circulated, giving details of the opening
ceremony, exhibits and acknowledgments for assistance and loan of material.
The material included a narrative sequence of photographs showing
the investigation of an outbreak of Food Poisoning, enlargements of the
descriptive wording and the coloured drawings from the leaflet circulated
to householders, culture plates from dirty hands, sputum, soiled tea cloths
and many other sources of infectious transmission, the correct and incorrect
use of a food storage cupboard, a display stand demonstrating a technique
for the sterilizing of babies bottles and charts and diagrams covering most
aspects of Food and Drink infections.
The Exhibition was opened by His Worship the Mayor, and the visitors
attending included members of the Public Health Committee, representatives
of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Food, C.C.H.E., E.C.C., and various
Boroughs, Chief Officers and other members of the Staff of Departments
of the Ilford Borough Council.
The Exhibition was favourably reviewed in the Local and National
Press and in the Medical Journals.
Requests were received for the Food Contamination leaflet, pamphlets,
loan of charts and other material, and advice on exhibition organisation from
Medical Officers in Singapore, Australia, South Africa and many "home"
Authorities. These requests were complied with and many letters of
appreciation were received.
National Assistance Act, 1948.—Section 50 requires a Local Authority
to arrange for the burial or cremation of a person who has died or been
found dead, and where it appears to the Local Authority no suitable arrangements
are being made for the disposal of the body.
Provision is made in the Act for recovery from the estate of the deceased
person or any person who for the purposes of this Act was liable to maintain
the deceased immediately before his death of the whole or part of the
expenses incurred.
On the 1st March, 1949, the Ministry of Health issued a circular
(No. 13/49), dealing more particularly with persons dying in hospital. The
circular asks Hospital Committees and Boards to exercise their power to
arrange burial where—
(a) deceased patients' relatives cannot be traced;
(b) those whose relatives are traceable but were not, immediately
before the patient's death, liable for his maintenance under Section 42 (1)
of the National Assistance Act and are not willing to arrange for the
burial; and
(c) those whose relatives are unable to obtain a death grant under
the National Insurance Act, 1946, and cannot otherwise afford to arrange
for burial.
Where a "liable" relative fails to carry out his responsibility, Hospital
Committees and Boards are advised to refer the matter to the Local Authority
upon whom the duty rests under Section 50 of the Act, in view of the powers
of recovery from the liable relative.
Similarly, in the area of a County Council, the duty of burial or
cremation rests with the County Council where the deceased person had
been provided with accommodation under Part III of the Act.
The burials of three deceased persons were dealt with up to the end
of the year. They were :—
(1) A widow, 89 years, who died in King George Hospital, lived in
lodgings in one room.
(2) A widow, 80 years, lived in one room.
(3) A child, 3 months, who died at the Ilford Isolation Hospital
(resident of Barking).