View report page

2
PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
33 LANCASTER GROVE,
HAMPSTEAD, N.W.3
1st May, 1954.
TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS
OF THE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF HAMPSTEAD.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have pleasure in submitting to you my Annual Report
for the year 1953•
Last year I gave you some indication as to the role of the
Public Health Department In the care of the aged and of the
number of persons who had been referred for help in solving their
problems. It is now some time since the Department has taken an
active part in this very serious problem and I have therefore
thought it wise to place before you some of the facts and figures
concerning those whom we have attempted to assist.
The responsibility of the Borough Council emanates from two
sources.
In the first place a Ministry of Health memorandum dated
1925 lays down the general functions of the Medical Officer of
Health in the following terms:-
"To safeguard the health of the area for which he
acts by such means as are at his disposal and to
advise his authority how knowledge of public health
and preventive medicine can be made available and
utilised for the benefit of the community. He
should endeavour to acquire an accurate knowledge
of the influences, social, environmental and
industrial, which may operate prejudicially to
health in the area, and of the agencies, official
or unofficial, whose help can be invoked in
amelioration of such influences"
In the second place the Medical Officer of Health has a
specific duty under Section 47 of the National Assistance Act,
1948, to secure that any person suffering from grave chronic
disease or who is aged, infirm or physically incapacitated and
who is living in insanitary conditions shall be transferred to
the appropriate hospital or institution unless the conditions
under which he is living can be so ameliorated that he can