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PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER, INFECTIOUS AND OTHER
DISEASES.
Isolation Accommodation in the County.
The Scheme of the Middlesex County Council made under Section 63
of the Local Government Act, 1929, was detailed as far as it affected this area
in my report for 1934. In the early period of 1935 the Council decided to
oppose as far as possible the absorption of Southall in the suggested Joint
Hospital District consisting of Southall, Ealing, Brentford and Chiswick, and
Acton and Wembley. A deputation was sent to the Ministry of Health with
regard to this and also to put before the Ministry the alternative proposals of
the Council for enlarging their present hospital and for providing necessary
cubicle accommodation. As a result of this the hospital was inspected by a
medical officer of the Ministry' of Health, but in a letter dated the 14th August,
1935, from the Ministry it was stated that the Ministry proposed to approve
the County Council's scheme as modified by them.
In the scheme as modified the suggested area for a Joint District has
been reduced by the exclusion of Acton and Wembley. (This of course makes
the objections to the scheme as far as Southall is concerned even greater.)
The letter further stated that it is contemplated, for the purpose of providing
hospital accommodation for the area, that the local authorities concerned shall
combine either by the formation of a Joint Hospital Board or alternatively by
entering into mutual agreements under Section 131 of the Public Health Act,
1875, and continued:—
"If, therefore, they are unwilling to participate in a Joint Hospital
Board they will have the option of entering into agreements under the
alternative procedure."
As a result of this letter it was decided that the Council would not further
oppose the proposed scheme providing that the accommodation was made
available by means of a Joint Hospital Board.
It was learned early in 1936 that the draft scheme had been finally
approved by the Minister with one or two minor modifications, and it will be
necessary therefore, in the near future, to work out the best scheme for this area.
The Isolation Hospital.
It was not necessary during the year to make use of the arrangements
entered into with the Borough of Willesden and the Borough of Ealing for the
admission of cases of diphtheria or scarlet fever which could not be treated at
the Council's hospital to the hospitals of either of these boroughs. The Council
also was not called upon under either of these arrangements to take in cases
from the two districts mentioned.
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