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16
The circulars forwarded to medical practitioners, containing' an
extract from Circular 549 of the Ministry of Health which suggested
action by the local authority when notification had not been carried
out by medical practitioners, has greatly improved notification, and
there is now no delay in notifying these cases; but as regards cases sent
for treatment at the Dispensaries there is still considerable room for
improvement. The deaths among Dispensary patients during the past
year numbered 121, and 32 of these patients, or 26 per cent., were in
the final stage of the disease on first attendance; 61 patients, or 50
per cent. were in the second stage. It also appears, from examination
of the case papers, that 53 of these cases, or 44 per cent., had been
suffering from the disease for a period varying from 3 to 12 months
before being referred to the Dispensary.
The Hackney Borough Council Act, 1926, has been of considerable
assistance as regards those persons suffering from Pulmonary
Tuberculosis who were infectious and living under such circumstances
as to cause risk of infection to other persons. The experience of this
Borough has been the same as that of Birmingham and of other
districts where compulsory powers of removal have been obtained. It
has been possible to effect considerable improvement in the home surroundings
by reference to the powers of removal contained in that Act
so that legal proceedings and removal to hospital have not been necessary.
Eleven cases received residential institutional treatment during
the year.
Sanitary Inspection.
During the past year nearly 6,000 Intimation Notices and over
1,600 Statutory Notices have been served, and the detailed work of
sanitary inspection has been carefully and conscientiously carried out.
The work of sanitary inspection can only be realised by carefully considering
the tables of inspection of food premises, food seizure, drain
testing, sampling, notices served, nuisances abated, and other details
of the work of the Department set out in the body of this Report.
Although the work carried out by the Sanitary Inspectors is of the
utmost value in maintaining housing property in a comparatively
decent condition and in checking the formation of slum areas, it is not
possible to prevent overcrowding, or prevent the deterioration of house
property from age, so that the situation is becoming steadily more
difficult in this respect.
The extent to which the careful work of the Sanitary Inspectors
and staff of the Department neutralises the ill.effects of overcrowding
is not realised: thus, during 1927 no fewer than 201 premises have
been cleared of rats, 417 rooms sprayed or otherwise cleared of
vermin, 2,714 rooms disinfected, 49,524 articles disinfected and 2,822
adults and children cleansed from parasitic infection, by the staff of