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PREFACE
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Edmonton, N.9.
His Worship the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough
of Edmonton.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have much pleasure in presenting my Annual Report for the year 1948.
It contains only a brief outline of the health circumstances relating to the
Borough, and is compiled in accordance with Ministry of Health Circular 3/49.
The Annual Report this year differs markedly from those Reports
presented in previous years, inasmuch as the introduction of the National
Health Service Act 1946 on the 5th July 1948, divides the School Health and
Maternity 6? Child Welfare Section into two parts—i.e., that carried on in the
beginning of the year by the Local Council and that carried on during the
latter half of the year by the Middlesex County Council. The Public Health
section still remains intact, and is a somewhat similar Report to those of
preceding years.
The sanitary circumstances of the District are greatly improved to what
they used to be, but we still have quite a formidable task before we reach our
goal. A number of houses are becoming rapidly more and more unfit, and
the two areas in Bridport Road and Fore Street should by now have been
dealt with as Clearance Areas were it not for the restrictions on building.
Housing continues to focus the main amount of attention in the Health
section. Mainly due to the tremendous difficulty in obtaining housing acconv
modation, young married couples are finding themselves accommodated in one
and two rooms, oft times to the social detriment of family relations. It is in
fact becoming frequent to have a husband living with his relatives and the wife
with her relatives. The prospect of housing is not at all bright.
I regret to have to mention that there is an increase in the incidence
of Tuberculosis. The number of beds available in Sanatoria is still too few
to cope with the number of cases. Happily, however, in many instances the
patient can be attended to at home where the housing accommodation is
suitable, but even this is becoming strained by the tendency of the number of
cases to increase.
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