Administration report of the Public Health Department of the City of Port-of-Spain.

  • Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Administration report of the Public Health Department of the City of Port-of-Spain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/52 (page 29)
    The five (5) Special Inspectors who have been appointed to do work of a special nature and whose functions have been detailed in many previous reports continued their special work during the year under report with results that can be described as satisfactory. They are the Building Inspector and Draughtsman, the Anti-Rabies and Water Sampling Inspector, the Infectious Diseases and Disinfection Inspector, the Food Inspector, and the Statutory Notices and Preparation of Information Inspector. The non-pensionable permanent staff comprised at the end of the year under report 2 supervisors, 37 anti-mosquito inspectors and 19 ladder and eaves gutters anti-mosquito men; 2 supervisors, 11 anti-rat squad drivers or foremen and 27 trappers; 6 men employed in disinfecting and disinfesting premises and in the oiling and deodorizing of privy cesspits; 6 men, the anti-bat unit whose duties are the poisoning and trapping of bats inside the City as well as in certain areas outside the City; and 7 men who are employed to clean, disinfect and take care of the Public Conveniences, which have been under the care of the Public Health Department since 1943. All these operatives are under the care and control of 1 checker and timekeeper, and their work is planned, directed and supervised by 2 members of the permanent pensionable staff, the Anti-Mosquito Overseer and the Anti-Rat Overseer. The Sanitation Unit (so-called) which is an important unit concerned with the emptying of cesspits, cesspools and septic tanks comprised at the end of the year under report 4 men, 1 clerk, 1 checker, 1 cooper, and 1 yardman at the Mucurapo Pumping Station where the night soil is disposed of, 2 chauffeurs and 2 gangs of cleaners and emptiers each of 5 men. Their work is planned, directed and supervised by a member of the permanent pensionable staff, the Supervisor of Cesspits. Dividing the staff into those whose duties are predominantly out of doors and those who work nearly all day indoors, the outdoor staff comprised at the end of the year under report 18 Sanitary Inspectors, 1 supervisor of cesspits, 2 overseers, 1 clerical assistant and 136 miscellaneous workers on the non-pensionable staff; and the indoor staff who perform, in the main, the purely clerical duties of the Department such as correspondence, verbal and written reports, the preparation of the monthly, quarterly and annual reports, the issuing of licences, badges, certificates of registration, &c., the com¬ pilation of vital statistics, the ordering of supplies, taking care of the financial transactions of the Department and the keeping of the various ledgers, registers, books, minutes, &c., comprised 3 sanitary inspectors, the chief clerk and 2 other sanitary inspectors, 1 clerical assistant and 1 messenger, all on the permanent pensionable staff and 1 assistant to the messenger drawn from the permanent non-pensionable staff. I have repeatedly drawn attention to the inadequacy of this staff to run a Department of the size and importance of the Public Health Department concerned with the health of and sanitary services to a population of over 120,000 people. There is urgent need for relief staff to carry out the duties of those Sanitary Inspectors who may be unavoidably away either on vacation or sick leave, on jurors’ leave or for other good and sufficient reasons; their duties have then to be performed depart- mentally and as a result added work and increased strain are thrown on the shoulders of the rest of the already inadequate permanent staff. It often happened during the year under report that as many as 5 of the outdoor pensionable staff were away at the same time on vacation or sick leave or on jurors’ service or ofa other legitimate business. Premises, &c., Disinfected for Infectious Diseases and Vermin—1950 Diseases Premises sprayed Pneumonia 56 Tuberculosis 88 Enteric Fever 13 Diphtheria ... ,.. 34 Puerperal Fever ... — Ophthalmia Neonatorum ... 1 Chicken Pox 80 Poliomyelitis — Cerebro-Spinal Fever — Total ... 272 Vermin 164 14,601 Cesspits were sprayed with a mixture of crude and distillate oils (free of charge) as a routine measure of prevention against spread of the bowel-filth diseases.