[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Battersea, Metropolitan Borough of].

  • Battersea (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
[1923?]
Catalogue details

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

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Battersea, Metropolitan Borough of]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: City of London, London Metropolitan Archives

    73/122 (page 65)
    65 at the same time, their attention was called to the facilities provided in the Council's scheme. A number of firms availed themselves of the scheme from the start, and made an annual payment to the Council based upon a scale charge, for the services of the Rat Officer and his staff. It was hoped that in this way the scheme would become self-supporting, but, although a considerable sum is received annually from persons using the scheme, this hope has not been realised. While the financial results have been somewhat disappointing, there can be no doubt as to the value of the work carried out under the scheme during the past three years. The small annual deficit is (many times over) compensated for in the saving in foodstuffs, and damage otherwise caused by these destructive pests. During 1922 the work carried out under the Council's Rat Repression Scheme is summarised as follows:— Premises visited 1,911 Contracts renewed 24 Poison baits used 14,545 Value of contracts £248 6 0 Dead rats found 1,815 Cash for poison bait £23 7 6 Drains were tested at 94 premises in connection with this work, and in 41 cases were found to be defective. Most of these defective drains were in private houses. As the presence of rats in houses is usually regarded as prima facie evidence of drain defects, the work of the Rat Officer therefore is carried on in close co-operation with that of the district Sanitary Inspectors. The methods employed under the Rat Repression Scheme have been described in previous Annual Reports. It is only necessary, therefore, to state that as an inspection of the summarised figures shows, the work done during the year under this head has been as satisfactory as in previous years. Personal Cleansing Station. During 1922, 4,444 children and 274 adults were cleansed at the Personal Cleansing Station, Sheepcote Lane. Of the 4,444 chil dren attending 262 were suffering from scabies and the remainder were verminous. These children, with the exception of 7, attended from the Public Elementary Schools in the Borough by arrange ment with the Education Authority, the London County Council, who have entered into a contract with the Borough Council for the use of their Personal Cleansing Station. The treatment and cleansing of the children is carried out under the supervision of the officers of the London County Council Public Health Depart ment, while the disinfection of the clothing and of the homes is dealt with by the Borough Council's Sanitary Staff. The building of the new Cleansing Station, the plans and speci fications of which were passed by the Borough Council and app oved by the Ministry of Health, was begun towards the end of the year, and the new premises, which are being constructed on the most modern principles, are expected to be ready for use in the early summer. The new station will prove a worthy addition to the Council's Public Health activities, and the Health Committee are to be congratulated on the persistence with