Annual report on the Medical Department / Sierra Leone.

  • Sierra Leone. Medical Department
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Medical Department / Sierra Leone. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    85/118 (page 85)
    \ I.—ADMINISTRATION. There is little to record under this head for the year under review. Dr. F. J. A. Beringer continued to act as Sanitary Officer during the year, and from 11th April to 17th October as Senior Sanitary Officer. The appointment of a second Superintendent Sanitary Inspector was approved, and Staff-Sergeant J. Black, Royal Army Medical Corps, arrived in time to relieve Staff-Sergeant W. H. Jones, Royal Army Medical Corps, in June. The former returned to the Royal Army Medical Corps in England, and the latter was absorbed in the local Imperial Military Establishment on the 5th December. At the close of the year, therefore, the Sanitary Branch was without the services of a Superintendent Sanitary Inspector. An elaborate scheme for regrading and reorganising the Sanitary Inspector Staff was prepared by Dr. Beringer, Junior Sanitary Officer, and approved. As it will involve a considerable increase in expenditure under the head of “ Personal Emoluments ” when put fully in operation, and it was not judged expedient to put it only partly in force, its introduction has been postponed for financial reasons. A small temporary increase in salaries for the inspectors was, however, agreed to, pending the larger change. The Rules and Regulations for the Inspectors—drawn up by the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. W. Allan)—referred to in the Report for 1913, were circulated amongst them in book form. Lectures were delivered to the Inspectors, and examinations held on them by the Medical Officer of Health. It is not proposed to discuss here the arrangement by which the Sanitary Engineer became an officer of the Public Works Department and executive head of the newly formed Sanitary Works Sub-Department of the Public Works Department. That embarrassment during most of the latter half of the year was experienced by almost every department is not lost sight of, and allowing for this it does not appear the arrangement agreed to regarding the Sanitary Engineer is likely to prove at all satisfactory to this branch of the Medical Department. Extreme difficulty in recruiting suitable men as Sanitary Inspectors continues. It is hoped that a more satisfactory class of recruit will be forth¬ coming when the finances at the disposal of the branch are such as to allow of the very considerable increase in expenditure which the introduction of Dr. Beringer’s scheme will require. Unfortunately the services of the Medical Officer of' Health, Freetown (Dr. W. Allan), were required for the Expedition to the Cameroons after the close of the year, but before he had had time to complete his Annual Report; the rough notes for which and all statistics connected with it, however, were presented before his departure. II.—LEGISLATION. “ An Ordinance to amend the law relating to Quarantine,” No. 16 of 1914, was passed on the 2nd September (with Schedule of Quarantine Regulations), which brings the law on this subject in this Colony in line with that in the other British West African Colonies. III.—SANITARY BRANCH OFFICES AND DEPOTS. The provision of Sanitary Branch Offices and a Central Depot was considered, and some progress was made during the year; meanwhile, the old female prison block is being used temporarily. It is proposed that after the