HH62/45/161

Transcription

[Page] 33

The New West Highland Railway Works and the Glasgow Water Works
Extension contracts, employing as they do a large number of navvies, have caused
the exercise of a considerable amount of supervision of the huts used for their accom-
modation. In securing the necessary sanitation much help was offered to the
Department by the Contractors, Messrs. Lucas & Aird, and Messrs. John Waddell
& Sons, along with their Officials; and during the prevalence of smallpox it was
chiefly owing to the help received from them that it was possible to prevent men
who had been exposed to the infection from wandering all over the country.
2. General enquiries have been made during the year to ascertain the
sanitary condition of the District, and a large amount of work has been necessitated
in connection with complaints regarding impure or deficient water supplies, the
insanitary condition of dwelling-houses, attempts to secure suitable sites for the
erection of Infectious Diseases isolation Hospitals, as well as the diagnosis and
isolation of cases of infectious disease, especially smallpox.
3. Advice was given in connection with the Hospital accommodation, purification
of sewage before its discharge into the Forth, and several other matters,
but no certificates were necessary, as the insanitary conditions were removed
voluntarily.
No action required to be taken in connection with Factories and Workshops
in the District.
4. The five Retail Bakehouses in the Landward part of the Western District
have been visited during the year, and found to be in good order; some minor
improvements in the structure of some of them have been carried out as soon as the
defects were pointed out to the occupiers.
5. While Smallpox prevailed at Crianlarich, the Hospital accommodation
of the Western District consisted of two large Huts, which were hired by
the District Committee at so much per week. Each of these huts was divided
into four rooms, one of which was reserved for the accommodation of the Nursing
Staff, the others being used either as sick rooms, or day and bed rooms for
convalescents. Another small hut was purchased, and erected at a point between
three and four miles down Glenfalloch, for the reception of a poor woman who was
too ill to be safely removed to the Crianlarich Huts. The treatment of the cases
admitted to these Hospitals was undertaken by Dr. Kay, Crianlarich, who devoted
himself to working amongst the infected section of the works, engaging an assistant
to attend to all the rest of his practice.
When the Smallpox case occurred at Frenich, one of the new Portable
Hospitals was available, and was at once taken to the place and erected at the
head of Loch Chon (a site having been kindly granted by the farmer, Mr.
Cowbrough), the assistant of Dr. MacGregor, Aberfoyle, being appointed to look
after the patient.
At Killin, on the occurrence of five cases of Scarlet Fever in the Public Reading
Room there, another of the Portable Hospitals was erected in a field just outside
the village, a site having been kindly granted by Mr. McLean of Finlarig
Farm; the cases were taken charge of by Dr. Bryce, Killin. All arrangements in
connection with the removal and treatment of patients removed to Hospital were
under the supervision of the Medical Officer.
Shortly after the termination of the Smallpox outbreak at Crianlarich, the two
large Huts, which had been used for the treatment of patients, were disinfected and
cleaned, and the District Committee's property contained in them was transferred to
the small Hut down Glenfalloch, which it was decided to keep ready for any

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emergency. A short time afterwards, this Hut took fire one night, and was totally
destroyed, with everything it contained.
The Hospital accommodation now available for those requiring it in the Western
District, consists of the two Portable Hospitals purchased last year. Each of these is
capable of dealing with, at least, four patients, and there is besides a room
for the nurse, in each. These Hospitals are intended to be erected at central points
of the District, when not in use, and as the foundations for one of them
will be made of concrete, it will be ready to be taken to pieces, removed, and re-erected
near the patient's house, or if considered best the patient may be removed to where
the Hospital is; the other is intended to be stored in sections ready for immediate
removal. On both of the occasions on which these Hospitals have been in use they
have given the most complete satisfaction, and the expense of treatment in them has
not been found to be unusally heavy. As an instance of how the prejudice against
these Hospitals is breaking down, it may be mentioned that the District Committee
received an application to rent the Hospital at Frenich (in which Smallpox had been
treated) as summer-lodgings for a family.
6. To prevent the outbreak of Infectious Disease, the whole energies of the
Department have been directed, and on many occasions attention has been directed to
faults, either in the surrounding or internal arrangements of dwelling-houses, with a view
to their being remedied. Water supplies have been examined, and on several occasions
analysed, and, when found to be defective, they have been made good or replaced by
better. One very important means for preventing the outbreak of Infectious Disease
has been adopted by the Western District Committee during the year, viz:- the ap-
pointment of scavengers in all the principle villages. These men by clearing away from
the vicinity of houses collections of domestic refuse, will do much to prevent the
occurrence of Diphtheria and Enteric Fever.
To prevent the spread of Infectious Disease, much valuable work has been done
by the assistant Medical Officers, and they have been loyally assisted in this work by
Drs. Kay, Crianlarich, and Macgregor, Aberfoyle. By the early recognition
of the nature of the disease, and by the prompt isolation of the patients
(in which the assistant Sanitary Inspectors did most excellent work), they
have shown that with an efficient local staff it is comparatively easy to check
the spread of Infectious Disease even when it occurs in very unpromising places.
In all cases of Infectious Disease strict isolation has been insisted upon, either
by removal to Hospital or at home, and in connection with Smallpox cases, not
only the patient but those in contact immediately previous to the illness, have been
isolated, thanks to the kind assistance of the contractors in whose employ the
majority of the suspects were. These, after re-vaccination, were kept working
in separate gangs, and no fresh hands were allowed to enter the quarantine hut during
what is known as the "incubation period" of the disease, or the time which usually
elapses between the reception of the infection and development of the first symptoms
of the disease. In one or two instances the men under quarantine made their escape,
but, as it was generally known in which direction they had gone, they were kept in
sight by the officials of the various Local Authorities through whose districts they
passed in their wanderings, warning being previously sent by telegraph, as soon as
the escape was discovered. Free re-vaccination was offered by the District Com-
mittee to all applying to the assistant Medical Officers; 545 operations were performed
at the Committee's expense, besides at least 150 private re-vaccinations in the
Parish of Killin.

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