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(a) At ports of arrival long-stay immigrants, both Commonwealth and alien,
who are referred to medical inspectors, will be given a hand-out printed in
languages which they are likely to understand, the aim of which is to
encourage them to get on to the list of a medical practitioner in their
place of residence so that (if he thinks it desirable) he can arrange for them
to go to a mass radiography unit, a chest clinic or a hospital for X-ray.
(b) Long-stay immigrants who are referred to medical inspectors at the ports
will also be asked to provide their destination addresses and these will be
sent to the Medical Officer of Health of the county or county borough
concerned (including also Scotland and Northern Ireland) with a request
that he should try to persuade the immigrants to act on the advice they
have been given in the hand-out. Medical Officers of Health and local
officers of the Ministry of Social Security will also be supplied with copies
of the hand-out in case they come into contact with immigrants who have
not received one or apparently lost it.
(c) Arrangements are made in respect of those dependants who obtain entry
certificates in their country of origin for their names and destination
addresses to be entered on a tear-off slip in their passports. This slip will
be detached by the immigration authorities and passed to the medical
inspectors so that the port medical officer can send the address on to the
appropriate Medical Officer of Health in the same way as in the case of
holders of Ministry of Labour vouchers.
It was hoped that these procedures would help to ensure that long-stay immigrants
would register with general practitioners at an early stage of their life in
this country and would not wait until they fell ill. It was also hoped that those
for whom it was appropriate, would have an X-ray at an early stage.
The Middlesex Local Medical Committee agreed in 1966 that health visitors
may refer immigrants for chest X-ray direct to the chest clinics at the time of their
visit on the grounds of expediency and expedition, and this is becoming established
practice.
During the year, the names of 243 long-stay immigrants, resident in the London
Borough of Enfield, were notified. Successful visits were made to 134 of these
but some of the immigrants listed were unknown at the addresses they had given
and others, despite repeated visits, have not yet been contacted.
A useful register has been compiled and issued by the Immigrants Advisory
Committee of the London Council of Social Service. The register lists interpreters
and social workers with special knowledge of overseas groups in the Greater London
area who can be called upon when necessary.
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