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3
CITY OF WESTMINSTER
Telephone:
01-828 8070
Health Department,
City Hall,
Victoria Street,
London, S.W.1.
To The Right Worshipful The Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the City of Westminster.
My Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for the year 1967. In doing so I do not intend
to write a long introduction. A foreword should, like an hors-d'oeuvre, interest the reader without
blunting his appetite for the courses which are to follow. If there is too much it will either be
ignored or, what is worse, be taken as a substitute for the book itself.
If a report such as this is to be of value, apart from retailing statistics and events, it ought to
provide an annual stimulus to each section of the Department to carry out a stock-taking, a search
for short-comings, and an opportunity to bring forward ideas for the future. In particular, one
section is, each year, encouraged to make a major contribution. This year it is the turn of Mental
Health.
The Report, therefore, although bearing my name, is the product of the work of many of my
colleagues in the Health Department. They have done their work well.
Wherever possible opportunity has been taken this year to include comparable statistics of the
previous year; they appear in the text in parentheses or elsewhere in a separate column.
It is with pleasure that I again record my very real appreciation of the support and encouragement
I have continued to receive from all Members of the Council and in particular from you, my Lord
Mayor, as the past Chairman of the Health Committee. I am also grateful to the Members of the
Health Committee for their help, understanding and ready support throughout the year.
I would, finally, record my warmest thanks to the Chief Officers and staffs of the other Departments
for their co-operation throughout the year; and especially to the members of my own Department
for their loyal, efficient and conscientious assistance without which the City Council's Health
Services could not have been carried on.
J. H. BRISCOE-SMITH
Medical Officer of Health
July, 1968