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8
the health of the district generally, the Board of Education require a
separate report upon the health of children in attendance at Public
Elementary Schools.
During the year the greatest advance has taken place in the
department which is concerned with Maternity and Child Welfare. New
premises have been acquired, and the staff augmented to meet the
growing popularity of the various Centres and the increased domiciliary
visiting arising thereout.
Notwithstanding the close relation between the supervision of
Midwives and the care for Mothers and Infants, duality of control
still continues, the County Council being responsible for the supervision
of Midwives, and the Local Authority for the care of Mothers and
Children. So also the County Council are the responsible authority
in respect of Tuberculosis, Venereal Diseases, Food and Drugs, Weights
and Measures, the extermination of Rats, and the cleansing of Polluted
Streams. The Guardians of the Poor appoint the Infant Life Protection
Officer, the Registrars of Births and Deaths, the Vaccination Officer,
the Relieving Officers, and the District Medical Officers—all Officers
of Health. The Ministry of Health, through Local Insurance Committees,
are responsible for the general health of the great majority
of the public by means of the services of Panel Doctors. The Home
Office supervise, through their Inspectors of Factories, Factories and
Workshops. Certain of these functions exercised by other than the
Local Authority will be touched upon in the body of the Report ; the
rest will not further be dealt with.
These are but a few of the authorities who take cognizance of
health matters in the area, and it will be difficult to suggest in what
respects the Ministry of Health differ, except in name, from their deposed
and more or less discredited predecessors. They have mainly concerned
themselves with a most essential problem, Housing, but up till the
moment of writing your M.O.H. is not aware of a single trick of a
house having been laid to relieve the all too manifest congestion of
population.
Tottenham has still no Isolation Hospital for her infectious sick,
nor the promise of one. The accommodation that she borrows is
ridiculously inadequate.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, it is nctt to be inferred from the
foregoing that your M.O.H. in any respect minimises the efforts your