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TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN, AND COUNCILLORS
OF THE LONDON BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM
I have the honour of presenting a report on the Health Services in Lewisham for
the year 1971.
The most notable single event during the year was the opening of the Jenner
Health Centre. The initial stages of use of the building has gone extremely well,
due undoubtedly to the willing co-operation of everyone concerned. The building
was designed to assist the integration of the Health Services to the greater benefit
of people. To the time of writing, the building has achieved this objective.
On the 31st December, 1971, three family doctors were practising from the building,
the fourth doctor commencing on 1st January, 1972. There has been much
discussion over the years concerning the family doctor team. The Jenner Health
Centre shows that the team is much larger than many people realised. The basic
members of the general practitioner team might be considered to be the health
visitor, district nurse, the midwife, the administrative staff and the family doctor.
There is a wider group who provide health services for the patient: the local
authority medical officer, chiropodist, dental surgeon, school nurse, clinic nurse,
bathing attendant and other medical and paramedical workers. The family doctor
may need to establish contact with all these together with members of staff of the
Social Services Department. This confirms the need to provide buildings in which
all who contribute services can co-operate at the "patient" level.
The Jenner Health Centre was named after Dr. Edward Jenner who in 1796
carried out the first successful vaccination against smallpox. In the year when this
centre was opened, vaccination of infants against smallpox ceased to be routinely
advised. This is a direct result of the immunisation programme which has reduced
the incidence of smallpox throughout the world so that it is now safe to discontinue
the measure. The value of Jenner's work was only slowly recognised in this country.
New forms of immunisation take a considerable time to become acceptable to the
population at large. Only about half of the children are being immunised against
measles and this is insufficient to eradicate measles. It is unfortunate that the public
have to be convinced of Jenner's basic finding—immunisation saves lives—each
time a new vaccine is proved.
During the year the Lewisham Borough Council took direct responsibility for
the Family Planning services, apart from the youth advisory and marital advice
aspects. These services had formerly been administered on an agency basis by the
Family Planning Association and I would like to record my appreciation of the
work of the Association in developing services in the Borough and in enabling the
transfer to take place smoothly. The services available continue to expand.
The work of the public health inspector continues to increase, particularly in the
field of housing, with improvement grants and the registration of houses of multiple
occupation as two major aspects. There is little doubt that the work of the
inspectorate together with the other activities of the Health Department, does much
to improve the quality of life of those who live and work in Lewisham.
I would like to express my gratitude to the Chairman and Members of the Health
Committee in particular, and to all other Members of the Council for their support
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