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community. Already, through the London County Council's Divisional Health
Committee, a strong Department has been built up locally. The treatment
and the community care and support of cases of potential suicide
is a small part of the work of the Community Mental Welfare Service,
but, for all that important part. Cases of potential suicide present
many complicated problems for the psychiatrist and the social worker,
but it is hoped that as the years go by and this work comes to fruition,
there will be a marked reduction in the number of cases of suicide, many
of them occurring under tragic circumstances.
The work of the Public Health Inspectors in supervising and improving
environmental conditions in Battersea was continued through
the year, and the records of the works will be found in the Tables in the
Report. With regard to Slum Clearance, we were probably not quite
So active in 1961 as we had been in the previous year, but the areas
which were represented in 1960 were confirmed in 1961, and the work
of rehousing and demolition of the houses in these areas commenced
and continues.
Further progress was made in 1961 in implementing the Clean Air
Act. This year I include a map of the Borough showing the Smoke
Control Areas already confirmed, and the areas south of the railway
line which are to be " declared " in the ensuing years. The area to the
north of the railway line has been deliberately not included in our
detailed plans at this stage, because of the very extensive rehousing
development which is proceeding in these areas. By the time that the
Part of Battersea to the south of the railway has been completed it is
expected that the re-development in the northern area, where all the
new houses and flats will have appliances for burning smokeless fuel,
will render the conversion of this part of the Borough into a Smoke
Control Area a comparatively easy problem.
During the year the staff at the Personal Cleansing Station was
reduced, owing to the diminution of the work, so that we now have
two Women bathing attendants, who are employed approximately for the
equivalent of 1½ full-time persons. A glance at the Table on page 54
shows how the amount of work has varied over the years, and the
marked reduction which has taken place since 1958, culminating in 1961,
when only 86 adults and 305 children needed treatment. This reduction
is the result of two main factors; firstly, the undoubted improvement in
general standards, and, secondly, the introduction of a new method of
treatment which can be carried out at home. The arrangements with
the Wandsworth Borough Council and the Lambeth Borough Council,
by which cases of these two Boroughs are treated at the Battersea
Cleansing Station, continued.
I reported last year that Dr. T. A. Plumley was appointed as Deputy
Medical Officer of Health, and he duly took up his duties in March of
this year. It was a great pleasure to welcome Dr. Plumley to the Department,
where he soon made himself at home. He arrived at an opportune
movement, for he was able to give considerable help in the outbreak of
diphtheria in the early part of the year.
In May, the Department said "Good-bye" to Miss J. Round, who
had been a Public Health Inspector and, more latterly, an Infectious
Diseases and Old People's Visitor, over a period of forty years. During
this time Miss Round rendered outstanding service in the Department