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10
One infringement of the Bye-laws relating to offensive cargoes was reported.
An Intimation Notice was sent to the offender, who took such steps as to render
further action unnecessary.
The arrangements made with the Port of London Authority whereby the annual
re-registration of Water Barges was made conditional upon the satisfactory report
from your officers as to fitness of the barges for carrying drinking water, worked
smoothly and efficiently during the year.
On April 23rd your new Boarding Launch was delivered at Gravesend and the
naming ceremony was carried out by Lady Green at Tilbury Landing Stage on
April 25th, the vessel being called the "Howard Deighton."
New arrangements have been made for the boarding of ships by your Medical
Officers at Gravesend. These are described in detail on page 14. The new scheme
has worked satisfactorily and the policy of building a special Boarding Launch
adopted by your Committee in 1930 has been fully justified, it being now possible
for Medical Officers to carry out more thorough inspections without delay to ships
or to H.M. Customs and for cases of infectious disease to be removed to your
Hospital more promptly and in greater comfort and safety.
Improvements at Denton Hospital include the raising of the Causeway so that
the new launch can come alongside more easily, the erection of a chain-link fence
enclosing a section of the grounds around the Small-pox Ward Block and the renewal
of the flooring of the Scarlet Fever Wards.
A scheme for the improvement of the hospital garden by raising the general
level of the ground was considered, but was postponed on account of the difficulty and
expense of getting suitable material tipped on the site. Meanwhile as much of the
scheme as possible is being carried out by your own Staff.
The inspection of imported foodstuffs is an important part of your work and
during the year 1,408 tons of foodstuffs were condemned as unfit for human
consumption and were either destroyed or disposed of for industrial purposes. The
control of imported mutton on account of Caseous Lymphadenitis was continued
throughout the year, but it was found possible to reduce the examination of carcases
from Australia and New Zealand from 10 per cent. to 5 per cent. by reason of the
improved standard of inspection at the time of slaughter in these two countries.
The standard of examination in South America was not so uniformly good and
consequently the proportion of carcases examined remained at 10 per cent. Mutton
imported as pieces was subjected to 100 per cent. examination regardless of the
country of origin. In order that there shall be uniformity in the principal ports, the
extent of examination of imported mutton is determined by the Ministry of Health
after either a conference of Medical Officers of Health concerned or consideration
of returns of the results of examinations over a period of six months.
Again an expression of thanks is due to the Medical Officers of Health of the
City of London and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Bermondsey, Southwark, Finsbury
and Greenwich for undertaking the examination of all imported mutton consigned to
cold stores in their districts. Without this assistance it would be impossible for the
work of inspection to be carried out without serious congestion in the dock stores and
interference with the prompt delivery of supplies.
As in former years a percentage of all ox-tongues imported from South America
was examined on arrival, the proportion found to be affected with Actinobacillosis
being 1.1 per cent. This figure is higher than that for the previous two years, but
the proportion of tongues examined was increased in the case of consignments from
sources where conditions were unsatisfactory and this led to a marked improvement
in the latter part of the year.
Legal proceedings were not taken in regard to any foodstuffs as merchants
voluntarily surrendered everything found to be unsound or unfit for human
consumption, and there was no instance of any deliberate attempt to import food in
contravention of any of the Public Health Regulations.