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INTRODUCTION.
WHEN the National Health Service Act came into operation on
July 5th, 1948, many services, which had been administered
since their very inception by this Authority, passed into the hands
of the Kent County Council or the Regional Hospital Board. Consequently,
the details of the work carried out and recorded in this report
under the headings of Maternity and Child Welfare, Maternity Hospital,
Day Nurseries, Home and Domestic Helps, Diphtheria Immunisation
and Civil Ambulance are concerned only with the first half of the year.
Though the administration of these services is now in other hands,
the actual day-to-day work is carried out by the same persons as before :
mothers attending Welfare Centres see the same doctors, their homes are
visited by the same Health Visitors and the staffs of the Maternity
Hospital, Day Nurseries and Civil Ambulance Service are unchanged :
the Home and Domestic Help Service is organised locally by an officer
of the Kent County Council working in the Public Health Department
in the Town Hall.
As one would expect, local residents who made use of these services
and were in need of advice, continued to seek it in the Public Health
Department as they had always done before; and there is no doubt
that they will continue to do so for some time to come—the habits of
years are not likely to be altered in a few months. Although the Kent
County Council has established an office in Beckenham for giving advice
about the transferred services, the staff of that office are new to the work,
and it will inevitably be some time before they can acquire the intimate
knowledge of the subject which the members of my staff have acquired
through the years. For our part, we are perfectly willing and anxious
to be of service in any way. It is true that, since the responsibility for
these services no longer rests with this Authority, we could with propriety
refer those seeking advice to the officers of the new Authority;
but in many instances this would have resulted in some delay and inconvenience
to our people, and to refuse our help would have been
opposed to the traditions of service which has always been maintained
by the department.
In every change involving the transfer of services of such a personal
nature there must always be a period of transition; and if this period is
to be traversed easily and smoothly and without causing undue inconvenience
to the public, the old authority must be willing to cooperate
with and, where possible, assist the new. Under these circumstances
I am sure that this Authority will not grudge any time expended
in the interests of the people of Beckenham, and that the County
Authority will not regard these efforts as a tresspass on their affairs.
The actual transfer was effected quite smoothly and without any
break in the continuity of the services.
In the body of this report I give some account of the record of this
Authority as a Welfare Authority, and I think that those who study it
will be satisfied that the record is an honourable one.
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