View report page

1
Public Offices,
Enfield.
30th March, 1937.
Annual Report of the Medical
Officer of Health, 1936.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Urban District Council of Enfield.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
I beg to place before you my 10th Annual Report on the health
of the District.
There has been a steady increase of the work in each section
of the Department, although the scope has not been much widened.
During 1937, however, the coming into force of the Midwives Bill
and the new Public Health and Housing Acts will mean alteration
in procedure and the undertaking of new schemes.
Much time has been devoted to the preparing of a scheme for
the protection of Enfield against Air Raid attacks; sites for First
Aid Posts and De-contamination Centres have been earmarked
throughout the District, and for this purpose use has been made
of the Maternity and Child Welfare and School Medical Clinics.
Considerable time has been devoted to the preparation of this
scheme.
The outstanding feature of the year's work was the inspection
of the whole District to find out the extent of overcrowding, in
accordance with the requirements of the Housing Act, 1935.
A report on this will be found within the pages of this Report.
The survey enabled me to decide not only what overcrowding
there was, but, in addition, the extent to which Council and
other houses could contain more persons than they held. I would
stress the fact that the standard adopted for legal overcrowding
was very low, a standard that included the living room for sleeping
accommodation, if necessary.