View report page

iv
was considered by the Public Health Committee from time to time
throughout the year. With the issue of Ministry of Health Circular
57/59 and the Radioactive Substances Bill 1959, now an Act, it became
clear that the Government had decided in favour of central, as opposed
to local control. In regard to the discharge of radioactive waste
substances, however, local authorities are to receive copies of
certificates of registration relating to all premises in their area,
and of certificates of authorisation for radioactive waste disposal in
their areas. No account is to be taken by local authorities of radioactivity
in the exercise of their powers in relation to nuisances,
pollution and the discharge of waste. The increasing use of radioactive
substances will bring great benefits. Although responsibility
is to lie with the Central Departments it will continue to be essential
for medical officers of health to keep a watchful eye on the local
position. This view is endorsed by the Report of the Committee on
Training in Health and Safety, under the Chairmanship of Sir Douglas
Veale which was published this year and recommends suitable courses
of training for local authority staffs. Your Medical Officer of Health
as well as the Chief Public Health Inspector and one other Inspector
attended courses on radioactivity during the year.
Welfare of the Elderly
The Ninth Annual Report of the Southwark Old People" s Welfare
Committee prepared by the Organising Secretary, Miss Beer, is largely
reproduced at the end of this report. A perusal of this document gives
an indication of the great increase in the work undertaken by the
Committee for the benefit of the old people, which followed the transfer
of premises in the middle of the year from the Gate House to St.
Alban's Hall. As Miss Beer so ably points out, the various activities
organised at St. Alban" s Hall are designed to alleviate the loneliness
which is such an unfortunate feature of this time of life, and to keep
the old people happier, and incidentally healthier. The Committee
receives substantial grants from this Council. In addition the accommodation
and facilities at St. Alban's Hall have been made available
to the Committee by the Borough Council on nominal terms. The Council
itself provides directly, through the Public Health Department, a
laundry service for incontinent persons being nursed at home, and
valuable work was undertaken during the year.
The care of old people in a metropolitan borough, is, from the
local authority point of view, divided between the health and welfare
departments of the.London County Council, who have the major responsibility,
the Old People's Welfare Committee, to which the Borough
Council makes grants, and the Borough Council's own Public Health
Department. The wide range of activities provided for the elderly by
the Southwark Old People's Welfare Committee and by the old people's