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Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Ealing Borough Council,
It is pleasing to be able to record that not a single case of
Diphtheria occurred in Ealing during 1952. This is the first time
that this has happened, and is a signal tribute to the effectiveness
of the linkage of medical science with local government to the
benefit of the people. Immunisation of children against Diphtheria
has been in the forefront of the Council's public health programme
for twenty years or more and the educational work of the Council's
Health Visitors can in no way be shown more effectively in its
true perspective than in this result. The value of the services of
the trained nurse who has been especially trained for her work as a
Health Visitor is also shown in the dramatic fall in infant mortality
over the last 25 years. It seems but a few years since we were
admiring the New Zealand Infant Mortality figures of 25 per 1,000
births when our own were in the 50's, and expressing pious hopes
that we might some day approach this amazing rate in this country.
Now the rate for the country is 27.6 and Ealing is 22. For this
someone should pay tribute to the patient educational force of the
Health Visitor, who is undoubtedly mainly responsible.
As a Medical Officer of Health of nearly 30 years' service, I
should like to give my measure of praise to a service that I have
relied upon implicitly and who have never let me down. The
country has been well served by its Health Visitors and it is sad
to find that they are a dying race. It is to be hoped that their
value to the social fabric will be recognised before it is too late.
In Ealing we had 16 Health Visitors and School Nurses in 1948
and we have now only 11. To that extent our health services
have certainly suffered since the Borough lost its Maternity and
Child Welfare powers under the National Health Service Act.
The Health Visitors were the shock troops in our immunisation
campaign—the fall in immunisation figures is inevitable if they are
not available. It is poor policy which provides buildings for services
and then is unable to give the services owing to lack of staff. That
is the situation we are facing in Ealing.
The work undertaken by the Borough as a Local Sanitary
Authority as distinct from the work undertaken by the County
Council in the Borough shows a lively and progressive spirit. In
the pages of this report will be shown the way in which the Public
Health Committee has tackled the most troublesome of these.
We can now see the wisdom of taking a firm line with the nuisance
of the caravan, and there is little doubt that, in spite of the
difficulties, we are in sight of a solution. We are sticking obstinately
to our long term policy of food hygiene as a Council responsibility,
and that over 1,000 people in the food trades have attended
our courses and that we have 49 establishments who have gained
our certificate of hygiene, gives a measure of our success so far.