[Report 1919] / Medical Officer of Health, Cheltenham Borough.

  • Cheltenham (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1919] / Medical Officer of Health, Cheltenham Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Summary of Routine and other Sanitary Work done in the Health Department during 1919, with Notes thereon. Report by the Chief Sanitary Inspector* I herewith present my report, as Sanitary Inspector for the Borough of Cheltenham, on the work carried out by the Inspectors of the Health Department during 1919. The work done includes house-to-house inspections, special inspections for the investigation of complaints and other reasons; supervision and testing of all drainage and general sanitary works executed in connection with existing buildings ; inspection of schools, houses-let in-lodgings, common lodging-houses, slaughter-houses, bakehouses, factories, workshops, workplaces and outworkers’ premises, cowsheds, dairies and milkshops, butchers, fruiterers and fishmongers’ shops ; the inspection of meat and other foods and of premises where foodstuff is deposited or prepared for sale. The usual practice has been continued of communicating with the responsible party immediately upon the discovery of any sanitary defect, and supplying detailed particulars of the work necessary to satisfactorily remedy the same. Long experience has proved that generally it is much easier to get nuisances abated, not only more promptly, but more willingly, by writing a letter, or by calling upon the responsible person, than by service of a legal notice. It is very gratifying to be able to record that it has not been necessary in any case to take legal proceedings to enforce compliance with the statutory notices. The complaints received at the office numbered 430, as against 235 received last year, all these were investigated, and dealt with as found necessary. Many of these were of the usual trivial character, and in a number of instances no nuisance could be discovered at the places against wdiich the complaint was made. The execution of all works for the removal or suppression of nuisances, whether it be a small matter of repair or extensive structural alterations, is done under the supervision of the Sanitary Inspector. Following the practice adopted before the war, a summary of the sanitary operations is furnished below. Such a statement, however, cannot adequately express the amount of work done by the sanitary staff, because in addition to the matters already set out, a con- siderable amount of time is of necessity taken up in keeping various registers and records, in clerical work, in interviewdng owners or agents of property, and other administrative work which cannot well be tabulated. This report also contains several tables of work done during the years 1916 to 1919 inclusive. The total number of sanitary inspections of the district during the years 1916 to 1919, with the results, are fully set out in the appended table,