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While I feel that the Council has done much in the field of welfare for the elderly,
and indeed nowhere have I seen such community effort, interest and sympathy as
exhibited by Finchley's voluntary organisations, much remains to be done. The scope
of services is vast but the prime need is simply housing. The Council have provided
164 units of accommodation and are planning to provide approximately 40 more. The
County Council and voluntary associations also play their part but there still remains
a desperate shortage of suitable accommodation. True the answer lies not wholly in the
Borough but is a national responsibility. The Council decided during the year to
provide a workroom/day centre designed to meet a known urgent need.
I hesitate to mention at all fluoridation of public water supplies as so much has
been written on the subject and continues to be written it seems almost daily. There
is no doubt at all that it will come, but it rather looks as though it will be so tardy
as to try the patience of a Job.
I am glad to report that the clean air programme has proceeded smoothly and
according to schedule and it is expected that 53% of the total acreage of the Borough
will be a smoke control area by the 1st October, 1964.
There were only 13 known cases of food poisoning this year, but there are undoubtedly
a large number of cases that go undetected. Food poisoning could be
virtually abolished by strict adherence to a rigid code of hygienic and clean food
handling. I do not think sufficient emphasis is laid upon hand drying. Many conscientiously
wash their hands and then proceed to spoil it all by drying with a towel
already used by other persons. I should like to see individual sterile towels or hot air
dryers used throughout the catering industry.
I should also like to see the housewives pursue a militant Clean Food Campaign.
The serving and display of food in shops leaves much to be desired. Assistants handle
paper money and coins and the food indiscriminately. They lick their fingers to
grasp paper money, greaseproof paper, etc., or blow into bags to open them. A shop
which does not conform to a high standard of cleanliness should be boycotted by the
housewife.
That there is little reference above to the future lies in the pending dissolution
of the Borough of Finchley which will cease to exist after the 31st March, 1965, when
it is absorbed into the new Greater London Borough of Barnet. I firmly believe that
the change will provide a better health service than hitherto, but equally that the name
of Finchley and the spirit and character of Finchley will endure to benefit the new
Borough. Accordingly this will be the penultimate Annual Report of the Medical
Officer of Health as I intend to present the last, based as it must be on provisional
figures, to the Borough early in 1965.
In closing this introductory letter it is my pleasant duty to acknowledge my
indebtedness to the loyal co-operation of the members of the Health Department
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