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I cannot leave this part of my introduction without reference to
one who played a very large part in the administration of the services of
the Department. Mr. S. W. Collett, who was transferred on July 5th to
the staff of the Kent County Council worked in the Department for
twenty-eight years. The Assistant Medical Officers were engaged almost
entirely on purely clinical duties, and so Mr. Collett was in fact, the real
administrative assistant. He was always most zealous in maintaining the
efficiency of the services for which we were reponsible, and much concerned
for the reputation of the Department. The idea of service which
animated all members of the staff was due in no small measure to his
personal example. His outlook was essentially a human one; he
listened patiently and with sympathy to all who came in need of help
or advice ; and he endeavoured by all the means in his power to obtain
for them the relief and assistance of which they were in need. His
loyalty and faithfulness are things which I will always remember.
So far as Infectious Diseases was concerned, it is worth noting that
only one case of Diphtheria was notified. The Autumn brought a few
cases of Poliomyelitis, from which we had suffered so badly in 1947
the occurrence of a limited outbreak of a disease a short time after it
has appeared in epidemic form is a phenomenon which I have observed
frequently.
A great deal of work was done in the repair of house property.
This work goes on week in week out throughout the year, as a reference
to the periodical reports of the Chief Sanitary Inspector will show. It
does not perhaps attract much attention, but it occupies a very large proportion
of the time of the Sanitary Inspectors, and, in these days of acute
shortage of houses, is a most valuable contribution to the housing
problem : without this constant attention many houses would soon be
fit for nothing but demolition.
Members will be aware from the reports of the Housing Committee
that the waiting list for houses is still a long one. My department is
chiefly concerned with people whose situation is causing them a very real
distress. It will no doubt be many years before every family in the town
has adequate accommodation, but the present situation is merely a very
acute exacerbation of a state of affairs which has, to my knowledge,
existed in Beckenham for over twenty years. In the meantime the most
serious aspect of the matter—and the one of which the Public Health
Department has most intimate knowledge—is the threat to family life.
Except in the most extreme cases, overcrowding is not so much a danger
to physical health as an affliction of the spirit. It is perhaps hardest for
the young married couples: frequently they are deterred from having
the children whom they so earnestly desire; and if courageously they
determine to ignore the circumstances in which they are living and starts
family, the arrival of the little ones adds further complications to what is
already a somewhat desperate situation. New reasons for friction
arise, trivial upsets become serious quarrels, dispositions are gradually
changed by the strain and in only too many instances, the continued
existence of the family as a family is threatened. I laid considerable
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