Annual report of the Department of Public Health / Union of South Africa.

  • South Africa. Department of Health.
Date:
[1923]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Department of Public Health / Union of South Africa. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/44
    Department of Public Health. REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE, 1923. By Dr. J. A. Mitchell, Secretary for Public Health and Chief Health Officer. I.—Introductory. 1. General Remarks.—The period covered by this report has been one of severe and continued financial stringency, which has affected this Department in common with all other spheres of Government activity. Progress in matters involving increased expenditure has of necessity been restricted, curtailments and economies have been effected wherever possible, and every effort has been made to expend to the best advantage the funds available. The financial stringency has also, in varying degree, affected sanitation and public health measures in most centres throughout the Union. Many local authorities have reduced their public health and sanitary staffs or have restricted their health expenditure in other directions. In a number of instances, municipalities which previously had in operation a departmental system of night-soil and refuse removal, with duplicate night-soil pails, have fallen back on the old and unsatisfactory contract system, carried out with tank-carts and single pails, which, in the nature of things, are never properly cleansed or disinfected. These and similar retrograde movements are likely to have a definitely prejudicial effect on the public health of the urban population of the Union. It is a regrettable fact that in bad times expenditure and activities in connection with public health and sanitation are usually amongst the first to be restricted. 2. Staff.—The principal changes during the year were the retirement on superannuation of Dr. P. Targett Adams, Assistant Health Officer, on 5th April, 1923, and the transfer of the headquarters of Dr. Sheldon, Assistant Health Officer, from East London to Pretoria, on 1st January, 1923. Dr. Sheldon was first appointed Assistant Health Officer in 1920, with headquarters at East London. His duties were mainly itinerant, most of his time being spent in the Transkei in connection with typhus. Experience has shown that for inspecting health officers the best plan is to fix their headquarters at Pretoria, so that their services are readily available wherever required in the Union, and that they are always in direct touch—these advantages far outweighing the drawback of the time spent on journeys from and to Pretoria. The question of the organization of chemical laboratories and the correlation of all chemical work undertaken by Government departments has been before the Government for a number of years past, and has been considered by various Commissions. It was reinvestigated in November, 1922, by a special committee appointed by the Public Service Commission. Subsequently, after a conference between the Public Service Commission, the Secretary for Agriculture, and myself, the Government decided to centralize in the Department of Agriculture the administration of all Government chemical work. The administration of