[Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Wallasey Local Board / U.D.C. / County Borough.

  • Wallasey (England). Local Board.
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Wallasey Local Board / U.D.C. / County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    buttermilk. Those fed at Mill Lane Hospital had no milk at all. On the 16th October, both lots of pigs were killed at the same slaughter¬ house in the Borough. All the Corporation pigs were found to be sound, but the dairyman s pigs were found to be so badly affected with Tuber¬ culosis (there being only one pig free out of the four), that it was necessary for the Veterinary Officer to seize two whole carcases and about one- fifth of the other carcase, together with the whole of the offal. There can be no doubt that the cause of infection in these pigs was the Tuber¬ cular milk, on which they had unwittingly been fed. It is interesting to note that the discovery of this milk infected with tubercle, not only proved that such milk can produce tuberculosis in pigs (incidently it can produce it also in young children), but it led to a visit by our Veterinary Officer to the farm outside the Borough whence the milk came, to an examination of the cows, to the discovery of the cow which was the cause of the infection and its slaughter, when it was proved post-mortem to have been infected with Tuber¬ culosis. Thus was cut off a very serious danger to the health of many young infants in Wallasey. The responsibilities of the Medical Officer of Health and his Department have greatly increased of late years. One has but to enumerate the Acts of Parliament passed during the last five years (some of them supreme and of far reaching importance) to demonstrate this fact. Let me give examples :—1926, The Midwives and Maternity Homes Registration Act, 1927, Nursing Homes Registration Act, 1929 Wallasey Corporation Act, extending the boundaries, 1929 Local Government Act, under which Boards of Guardians were abolished and the duties formerly exercised by them were to be exercised in future by Local Authorities, 1930 Housing Act, 1930, etc., etc. In addition to the above, there has been added the natural devel¬ opment of existing services, e.g., Child Welfare, Maternity (including Ante-natal Clinics) the School Medical Services (including the organisation of an orthopaedic scheme) and the administration of a scheme dealing with blind persons. The Local Government Act is the most important enactment affecting Public Health which has been placed on the statute book since 1875. It is true that this Act does not affect Wallasey in quite the same degree as some other towns, in that the Poor Law Hospital is situated in Birkenhead and, therefore, is to be administrated by that Borough, but at the same time it must be remembered that some services formerly administrated by the Guardians are transferred directly to the Health Committee, e.g., Infant Life Protection, Vaccination, etc. Sooner or later, and sooner rather than later, this town will have to provide hospital accommodation for its own poor. During the year I have issued three reports explaining the position, and have attempted without success—for reasons into which it is not now necessary to enter beyond stating that they are not entirely financial—to obtain agreement in favour of a scheme whereby a properly organised medical service would be available in the town to replace the chaotic conditions which exist at present. I believe that the objections raised against the scheme will rapidly disappear as time goes on and that when the hour arrives