[Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough.
- Smethwick (Worcestershire, England). County Borough Council.
- Date:
- 1930
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![referrod to by the Medical Officer of Healtli in the introduction to his Report and does not therefore call for elalroration here. I ti'iist that the (’onncil will appreciate the supreme impoidance of continuing the exam¬ ination of the town’s milk supply for the presence of tubercle bacilli. Another fact worthy of mention is that this year has seen a com¬ plete re-organisation of the record keeping systems of the Department. Dairies, cowsheds and milkshoi)s, Avorkshops, bakehouses and .slaughter¬ houses are now registered on the Acme Visible Card Indexing System. The register contains two cards for each premises, a fixed master card and a detachable card of distinctive colour which may be removed and taken on the district in a special poitable wallet. The system is an excellent one. facilitating <|uick and ready reference and considerably reducing the amoTint of writing which the Inspectors are called upon to do. A modification of the same system has been adopted in connection with the records of hoAi.se to house ins]x>ctions, cards in this case being filed horizontally with vi.sible edges in flat trays in a metal cabinet. I cannot close this introduction without expressing my keen satis¬ faction in the fact that the .solution of Smethwick’s slum clearance pro¬ blem is now in sight. This is my sixth Annual Report. When I pre¬ sented my first in I92o I painted a somewhat gloomy picture of wide¬ spread overcrowding, unsatisfactory working class housing conditions and slums which there was no immediate prospect of removing. To-day, thanks to the energy of the Hou.sing Committee, overcrowding is less rife. Three thousand five hundred houses Avhicb Avere falling into dilapid¬ ation and disrepair have been re-conditioned and rendered in all respects reasonably fit for habitation, and finally a scheme for the complete elimination of the slum property in the toAvn Avithin the next five years has been promAilgated. Finally I wish to thank the Chairman and Members of the Health Committee for their suppoi’t and encouragement in eA'ery proposal that I have broAight Itefore them for improving the sanitary condition of the ToAvn, the Medical Officer of Health for his invaluable advice and friendly co-operation at all times, the District Sanitary Inspectors and Clerical Staff Avho.se loyalty and deA'otion to duty have been such outstanding features of the year’s Avork. Without them such a record year of progress could not liaA’e been achieved. JOHN H. WRIGHT, Chief Sanitary Inspector.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30091226_0080.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
