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literature and propaganda relating to matters of health and disease.
The Minister of Housing and Local Government replied that, whilst
no prior approval was required to expenditure under that section, he
was still of the opinion that the Council would not be empowered
to subscribe to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents under
that Act.
I next drew the attention of the Town Clerk to a section of the
Report of the Chief Medical Officer to the Ministry of Health for
1952 in which it is clearly stated:—
"... A considerable number of local authorities are showing
an active interest in accident prevention and medical officers
of health and their staffs are especially concerned. . . . This
field of preventive work is clearly one for the Medical Officer
of Health and his staff. . . ."
Despite the fact this correspondence had commenced in mid-1953
it did not finish until early 1955 with a letter from the Ministry of
Health in which the Minister expressed his concurrence with the view
of the Minister of Housing and Local Government that at Section 179
of the Public Health Act would not empower the Council to subscribe
to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
The work of preventing accidents in the home is clearly work
which should be undertaken as an integral part of the duties of the
health visitors and other health workers who enter the home, and it
should require no separate organization. Whilst I an fully aware that
the difficulty could be overcome by the setting up of specially, and
technically voluntary, home safety committee, I ha not suggested
that we adopt this rather clumsy device of overcoming Ministerial red
tape.
We do not want more committees and more taking. We need
action by health visitors and others, and such organizations as the
Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents to provide us with
propaganda material and stimulation. The Society must have financial
support and it should be possible for local authorities to give this
modest help.
Since this report was first written an article entitled "Accident
in the Home", by one of the Ministry's Medical Officers, has been
published in the Monthly Bulletin of the Ministry of Health. To
quote from this: ". . . it is felt that this is a fruitful field of opportunity
for preventive medicine by the Medical Officer of Health an
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