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Health Department,
9, Brampton Road,
Bexleyheath, Kent.
To: The Worshipful The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the London Borough of Bexley.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour of presenting my Report on the work of the Health Department of
the Borough for the Year 1971.
During the early part of the year a great deal of the work was associated with the separation
of the Social Services from the Health aspects of the Local Authority Services with the formal
function of a Social Services Department commencing on 1st April, 1971. Services with a
predominant health commitment remained with the Health Department, although there were
inevitably services passed to the Social Services Department in which health aspects were of
vital importance. It appears quite clear to me that the community must look upon each and
every person as a whole; neglect of certain social principles must inevitably eventually produce
medical symptoms, while many an illness will present in its wake social problems. It is for
this reason that the two Departments must continue to work closely together, so that adequate
links will have been produced by the time the unification of the Health Services takes place.
Another matter of considerable importance was the implementation of the Education
(Handicapped Children) Act of 1970. This meant the transfer of the two junior training centres,
Marlborough and Shenstone, to the control of the Education Committee. The Act's intention
is that every child, irrespective of handicap, should attend a school suitable to his needs, and
that in future no child will be destined to be considered unsuitable for education at school.
Undoubtedly this is a far-sighted Act, which will prevent anomalies and the heartbreak of many
parents having their child ascertained. These children will now come under the care of the School
Health Service and very close medical observation will be maintained to ensure that no child
is prevented by medical reasons from reaching its full potential.
Almost simultaneously in May 1971 the Consultative Document on the re-organisation of
the National Health Service was produced. This emphasised the urgent need of setting up close
and lasting liaison links with all Local Authority Departments in preparation for the day when
all health functions, save Environmental Health Services, will be transferred out of the immediate
control of Local Government.
One of the many decisions taken at that time was to split the Borough into three nursing
areas coterminous with the Social Services area teams, each health service area having associated
with it not only a Principal Medical Officer, but also an Area Nursing Officer, so trying to produce
at daily working level co-operation between the field officers of the two Departments. This,
to my mind, was even more important than the co-ordination of the two Departments at planning
level. Incidentally, almost as a by product, this division into areas will before very long facilitate
the introduction of a full Mayston structure of Nursing Management, with the appointment
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