[Report 1924] / Medical Officer of Health, Rochester City and Port.

  • Rochester (Kent, England). City and Port Authority.
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

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

Credit: [Report 1924] / Medical Officer of Health, Rochester City and Port. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    GENERAL SANITARY WORK OF THE PORT. Systematic inspections of the shipping of the Port are made and vessels specially visited, and their crews medically inspected as occasion requires. For many years there has been an arrangement with the Port of London by which their Medical Officer boarded ships bound for the Port of Rochester, at Sheerness. This arrangement, so long as it was efficiently carried out, afforded a safeguard for the Port of Rochester who paid the Port of London £100 a year for the services of their Medical Officer in this respect. It now appears that in recent years the boarding at Sheenies has been more honoured in the breach than in the observance and that at present it is not being carried out at all. The Medical Officer of the Port of London has advised his Authority that it is impracticable and even unnecessan to coutinue the inspections at Sheerness. The Port of Rochester, it is presumed, will discontinue the payment of the £100 and will accept the additional responsibility thus imposed upon them. The matter, however, has not been finally settled and in the meantime your Officials are alive to the altered conditions which have arisen. They are the better able to deal with these conditions now that the Port is equipped with a Motor Boat, and it may be added that early in the current year an assistant Port Sanitary Inspector was appointed. The Port has no special provision for cleansing and disinfesting verminous persons and their belongings, but in case of need the disinfesting station at the Medway Infirmary would he at the disposal of the Port Authorities. The Local Hospital for Infectious Diseases receives cases of Small Pox, Cerebro-Spinal Fever, Typhoid Fever, Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria. WATER BOATS. Two boats are used for supplying ships with water for drinking purposes. The tanks of each boat have been cleaned out and limewashed four times during the year. CASES OF SICKNESS. On September 18th, the s.s. “Pendawes” arrived from Bathurst, and was boarded by the Medical Officer, who examined the crew of 25. I’wo of the crew were found to be suffering from pneumonia and were sent to Greenwich Hospital. On August 1st, a man on board the s.s. “ Moontleet ’’ was found to be suffering from Measles and was treated on board. Seventy-one other cases of sickness come under observation, none of which were serious or infectious. Venereal Disease.—The local facilities for treating Venereal Disease are fully made known to each vessel on entering the Port. No case was reported during the year. PASSENGERS. As far as is known, no passengers arrived in the Port. CARGOES. Cargoes of Flour, Potatoes, Grain, Meal, Sugar, Onions and Grapes, to the total number of 103, were examined, and mostly found to be in good condition. GENERAL INFORMATION. Otterham Quay, Halstow and Whitewall were visited from time to time and offer no matter for comment. Riverside factories and wharves have been periodically visited and the Port Regulations duly posted. Thirteen dead dogs found on the foreshore were buried. SHELL FISH BEDS. There are shell fish layings in the lower reaches of the River, and while it cannot be said that the River is free from pollution, the fish gathered from these layings are invariably found to be clean on the occasions of the frequent examinations to which they are subjected. Shell fish, however, picked up from unauthorized places nearer the City are always dangerous, and numbers of cases of Typhoid Fever, have, in the past, been traced to their consumption. The following Table shews the number of notices served by the Port Sanitary Inspector during the year on vessels, other than Canal Boats, and the nuisances discovered and dealt with