[Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Dover Port Health Authority.

  • Dover (England). Port Health Authority.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Dover Port Health Authority. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/16 (page 1)
    BOROUGH OF DOVER. AMUaL report of Port Medical Officer of Health for 194.6. 1. The Medical Inspection of Aliens arriving at the Port of Dover was suspended on the outbreak oi war and the appointment of Medical Inspector of Aliens lapsed during the period of hostilities. In anticipation of the resumption . of cross-channel boat traffic the appointment of Medical inspector of Aliens was made in April and the first cross- channel .service commenced on April IDth, 1946. The s.'s. Canterbury commenced a daily service, in both directions, between Dover and Calais. The outward journey which was run in the morning did not affect this Department and the' inward journey, which has been met daily,'was scheduled to arrive at 5,50 (B,S.T.) The boat continued to run on this schedule throughout the summer until October 7th when the time of arrival was altered -to 4.50 (G.M. T. ) On this ■ date also, a second boat service was inaugurated between Dover and Ostende, the service being operated by Belgian boats. The s.s, Canterbury was replaced by the s.s. Invicta which continued to operate the service for the rest of the year. During'the holiday periods in mid-summer the time of the arrival of the boat was subject to considerable fluctuation and the time of clearance was nrolonged far beyond that which ¥/as customary in pre-v\/ar days; this was chiefly due to the operation ofcurrency regulations and a strict control on the entry of aliens into this country. These two factors apolied to a large number of passengers produced inevitable delay and on several occasions extra boats were run to cope with abnormal numbers of passengers, 2. The following routine is carried out for the inspection of aliens landing in Port:- No passengers are inspected on the boats but all alien passengers are'inspected as they leave the boats and pass the Immigration Officers on their way to the Customs. The Medical Inspector is able to get a satisfactory view of all the alien passengers . and it is considered that the medical inspection provided complies with the provisions of the Aliens Order. The only exception to this is that when people have been selected for examination by the Immigration Officer the Doctor is naturally absent from his place of observation whilst dealing with the persons referred. In actual practice this turns out to'be a theoretical rather than practical consideration as the passengers are delayed when passing the Immigration Officers. It was the custom'of the Port at one time for all examinations to be carried out after the last passenger who was not to be examined had pag^sed through, .but this was discontinued as there were compLainis that people were failing to catch their trains. Thc^facilities for medical examination are exactly the same as those provided before the war - two consulting rooms with four examination cubicles - and this accommodation is quite adequate to deal with the number of people passing through. On several occasions liners have called at the Port and the Medical Inspector has proceeded out to the liner by tender, thus combining his duties under