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78
THE CONTROL OF DISEASE.
In my report last year, I referred to the inadequate
information at the disposal of the Medical Officer of
Health concerning the health of his district. Illness
occurs, but unless it is of an infectf&us nature, and
then only in certain diseases, no one is obliged to
record the fact or to inform the Medical Officer of
Health about it. A consultant's services or hospital
treatment are required and possibly obtained, but again
the facts are apparently not of sufficient importance to
necessitate any public record. Births, marriages and
deaths are certainly vital facts of which a public officer
does take cognisance and he being a colleague of the
Medical Officer of Health his local records are available.
The Registrar-General also furnishes valuable
annual returns concerning the net births and deaths
belonging to the district and as to the causes of death.
With these materials the Medical Officer of Health
takes stock of the health of his district.
A certain amount of other information is obtainable
and is given with ready courtesy by local doctors,
dispensaries and hospitals and by other authorities.
This, however, does not remove the essential weakness
of our present administration in the practical matters
of knowing just how much and what kind of illness is
occurring in each locality, what measures are being or
ought to be taken to deal with it or to prevent its
future occurrence. If the Borough is the recognised
local unit for health purposes, it seems a pity that such
clinical records as are compiled locally, e.g. treatment
under Health Insurance Acts, medical examinations
under the Factory Acts, school medical examination
and treatment, treatment at local hospitals and dispensaries
should not be available to the Medical Officer
of Health to enable him to judge accurately of the
health of the Borough.
Much good will doubtless come in due course from
the co-ordination of medical resources which is possible
under the Local Government Act, 1929, but in such