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7
MEDICAL INSPECTION AT SHEERNESS.
The following report, dated 2nd October, 1924, was made to your Worshipful
Committee, on the question of medical inspections at Sheerness :—
" THE SHEERNESS BOARDING STATION AND DUTIES OF A MEDICAL OFFICER
AT SHEERNESS."
" The termination of Dr. Legge's services at Sheerness is a convenient time for examination
of the whole position with regard to the question of retaining the services of a wholetime
Medical Officer stationed at this point.
Before the war, a regular Flushing—Queenboro' passenger and cargo service afforded
daily and constant work for a Medical Officer in examination of passengers, meat and aliens.
Queenboro' as a landing place appears now to be beyond special consideration for some time
to come.
For one year ending September 5th, 1924, the total arrivals from foreign ports at the
mouth of the Medway were 424, i.e., one ship, sometimes two, a day. Their nationalities
are British, 180 ; Foreign, 244. Vessels from ports in Europe lying North of the Dover
Straits, 279. Vessels from ports on which routine watch for infectious disease is usually kept,
20 (Petrograd, 3 ; Riga, 1 ; Finland, 7 ; British India, 2 ; Mexico, 1 ; Malta, 2 ; Black Sea,
2 ; Gibraltar, 1 ; Gambia, 1).
Though, from time to time, in the past 20 years, cases of illness have been investigated
by the Medical Officer, infectious cases have been extremely few—one scarlet fever and two
enteric fever. These have each been duly declared before examination. The trades in which
the ships are engaged present no special infectious disease problems, such as the Plague rat.
The visit to each arrival would of itself occasion no great work, and the visit to each ship
on which illness is declared, much less still. But to keep a launch under way or waiting day
and night for the sole purpose of transporting a Medical Officer to one, perhaps two, boats a
day—the great majority being boats of small tonnage and small crew—seems to be materially
out of perspective with the necessities, and latterly no such facility for the regular transport
of a Medical Officer has been available. The Customs launch with a ' quarantine ' officer
on board may be anywhere between Chatham and Sheerness at the moment when the vessel
from ' foreign ' rounds Garrison Point.
The Customs ' quarantine ' officer puts his questions to the master; if the replies are
satisfactory there is no law for his detention of the vessel or turning her round on tide or
sending her back to Garrison Point.
Thus the Medical Officer may have been ready and waiting on the quayside only to see
the ship pass up without his visit.
The difficulty of boarding at Sheerness would not be surmountable unless with a launch
always at the disposal of the Medical Officer and a ' quarantine ' officer constantly and solely
detailed to ' quarantine ' work, or with a Medical Officer on duty night and day and constantly
on board the Customs launch. The first of these alternatives would strain the equipment
and staff of the Customs and the second that of the Port Sanitary Authority.
The district of the Port of London ends at a line joining the mouth of the River Swale
with Goalmouth Creek at the Isle of Grain and includes Ridham Dock in the Swale.
Analysis for the year shows that the number of ships entering the Medway bound for
the Port of Rochester is 235 as against 188 remaining in the Port of London district.
For Rochester—Chatham, 11 ; Rochester, 207 ; Upnor, 10 ; Strood, 4; Gillingham, 2;
Maidstone, 1 ; equals 235.
For London—Port Victoria, 9 ; Ridham Dock, 136 ; Queenboro', 38 ; Sheerness, 5 ;
equals 188.
For Faversham—1.
The ships for the London district can easily be examined from Sheerness within a short
time of arrival by a Medical Officer overland, or in ships for Port Victoria, by boat, information
of arrival being given by the Customs.
At present the Port of Rochester contributes to the Port of London Sanitary Authority
£100 per annum for ' quarantine ' work.
It will thus be seen that the Customs, The Rochester Port and the Port of London
Sanitary Authority are jointly concerned in the boarding arrangements. The Ministry of
Health is obviously interested.
It appears to your Medical Officer that any routine work having such small practical
effect as that at the Sheerness boarding station tends to become a secondary consideration
and would certainly not be attractive work to a whole-time officer of any merit. A part-time
Medical Officer could be as effective.
The 188 ships for the London district can be reached at any time within an hour or so
of arrival and inspection made. The Customs would, no doubt, give information as at present ;
whenever illness is declared information would be immediate and the visit and inspection
of the Medical Officer hastened.