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These certificates, of which 19 (13) were issued during 1969, are sought mainly by persons proceeding
to the United States of America who do not wish to submit to vaccination. It is understood
that the United States immigration authorities reserve the right to place such persons under surveillance
notwithstanding the production of a certificate of this kind.
AFTER HOURS EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SERVICE
This service has continued to prove its value as a simple and effective means of providing comprehensive
coverage of health, welfare, medical and similar emergencies arising outside normal office
hours. It is administered by the City of Westminster Health Department and financed jointly with the
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to cope with any such problems arising within the areas
of the two Authorities.
The control centre is at City Hall, Westminster, and it is manned by four Duty Officers working on a
rota system. Each Duty Officer has at hand files of general and specialised data relating to all available
services, and the telephone numbers of senior officers and other staff on standby duty for the respective
Health, Welfare and Children's Departments together with details of parallel emergency telephone
services in the other London Boroughs and elsewhere. He is thus able to refer any given emergency
directly to the appropriate officer or service, and to supply information, advise generally, or pass the
less pressing matters to the appropriate day staff for attention.
The officers always available on call for Westminster and for Kensington and Chelsea include the
Medical Officers of Health or their Deputies, senior medical officers, mental welfare officers,
children's officers, welfare officers, midwives and public health inspectors. Senior officers in other
departments of the Council and other officials such as Coroner's Officers, District Surveyors, can also
be contacted through the control centre if necessary.
The Duty Officers have a working knowledge of the services with which each of the various
departments deals and this, together with information from the files, and their experience of the
types of problems likely to arise, enables them to advise on many matters which require no immediate
specific action.
Further advantages of the system are that officers called to a particular case are enabled to report
back periodically to the centre to receive additional messages, seek the advice or assistance of
colleagues, pass reports for subsequent action by day staff, or instruct the Duty Officer to make
telephone calls on their behalf with a consequent saving of time. The Duty Officers are also available
to authenticate international certificates of vaccination where early departure prevents this being
done during normal office hours, to receive bacteriological specimens and transmit them to the
laboratories for examination, to issue vaccines to medical practitioners, to summon police or
ambulance services, and finally to take cremation bookings. Information concerning such things as
the times and location of the various health and welfare clinics, including venereal diseases clinics
(which are dealt with on a separate line), can be supplied at any time to callers.
The service benefits increasingly from the special knowledge and experience which the Duty
Officers continue to gain in the course of their work, and by the other officers concerned taking fuller
advantage of the system and placing greater reliance on it as they become accustomed to its possibilities.
Hospitals, police, ambulance service, G.P.O. telephone operators, emergency medical relief
services, medical practitioners, social workers, and a widening range of official and unofficial organisations
are making reciprocal use of the facilities to mutual advantage.
During 1969, a total of 11,835 (11,477) calls were received, 9,630 (9,153) relating to the City of
Westminster and 2,205 (2,324) to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An analysis is
given in Table 7, page 70.
VISITORS TO THE DEPARTMENT
In addition to the practical training provided for various members of the Health Department staff
(to which reference is made in the next section) no fewer than 630 persons were welcomed during
1969 for visits of observation.
Being located close to the central Government departments and near to many Embassies or
Legations of other countries, the City Council receives numerous requests to receive visitors
comprising officials from central or local government of this country or from abroad members of
foreign municipalities or Commonwealth countries; doctors, students from teaching hospitals,
nurses, social workers, etc. Indeed, the point has now been reached when it has become necessary
to "ration" the number of visitors who can be received without seriously interfering with the day-today
work of the Department.