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To the Chairman and Members of the Heston and
Isleworth Urban District Council.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit to you the following Report on the health and
sanitary condition of your district for the year 1905. It is the fifth Annual
Report for which I have been responsible as your Medical Officer of Health.
The Health Department has been very fully occupied during the year,
and at times has worked under great pressure. The area of its duties is
constantly increasing, but there has been no corresponding increase in the
size of tbe staff that has to carry them out. The growth of population and
number of inhabited houses in the district will before long make the appointment
of an additional Sanitary Inspector necessary if the work of the
Department is to be maintained at the present standard. The duty of testing
the drains of all new buildings was taken over in November, 1904, and has
now become a part of the ordinary routine work of the Department and a
permanent addition to the work of the Inspectors. There can be no doubt
that this testing of new drains is of great value, but it must be realised that
it has only been possible to carry it out efficiently by sacrificing a certain
amount of other work of equal importance, such for instance as regular houseto-house
inspection.
The most unsatisfactory matter during the year was the large number
of cases of Diphtheria in the district. Probably the most satisfactory was
the passing of the new bye-laws relating to pig-keeping. Both these matters
are dealt with in the Report and need not be further referred to here.
In my Reports for 1903 and 1904, I pointed out the necessity for increasing
the accommodation for patients at Mogden Hospital. I regret to be
obliged to report again that nothing whatever of practical value has been
done in the past year towards enlarging the Hospital. I can only point out
to the Council that the necessity for enlargement is not less now than it was
two years ago, and that the matter is one of urgent importance.