London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hornchurch 1955

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hornchurch]

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12
(i) Westland Avenue, Hornchurch.
(ii) Abbs Cross Lane, Hornchurch.
(iii) Upminster Road, Rainham.
(iv) Athelstan Road, Harold Wood.
(v) Southend Road, South Hornchurch.
(vi) St. Mary's Lane, Upminster.
(vii) Hornchurch Road, Hornchurch.
(viii) Front Lane, Cranham.
Nursing and Maternity Homes.
There are 3 registered Nursing and Maternity Homes in the
district supervised by the County Council.
Midwives and Home Nurses.
There are 9 midwives and 5 home nurse/midwives in the
district who were appointed by the Essex County Council and are
available to act in the capacity of midwife and of maternity nurse
under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner.
In addition to the home nurse/midwives there are 6 home
nurses working in the district.
Care of the Aged.
Although the welfare of the aged is substantially the concern of
voluntary bodies such as the Hornchurch Urban District Old
People's Welfare Committee, the Public Health Department has
nevertheless instances regularly cropping up which fall particularly
within their province. The old person perhaps unwilling to have a
direct association with any of the existing organisations, depending
upon neighbours or even upon their own increasingly inadequate
efforts, eventually tends to fall into a state when complaints are
received as to alleged nuisance or when friends or neighbours simply
feel that somebody should do something radically to alter an increasingly
unsatisfactory state of affairs. This is a case with which
the Sanitary Inspector not only deals but deals well. Section 47 of
the National Assistance Act may in the last resort be of considerable
assistance in dealing with instances of this kind but it is really the
last resort and not a remedy to be selected without the most careful
examination of all the other alternatives. In fact with continued
patience, the exercise of sympathy with a certain amount of firmness
and the encouragement of friends and neighbours where
possible, it is usually found that even acute situations can be tided
over without prejudice to anyone. The old person very often has an
inherent dislike of institutions under whatever guise they may be
offered. Often this may spring from a purely imaginery picture
which they have devised of a life both restrictive and essentially
communal in character; in other words a picture designed to repel
the independent. In fact this I believe is far from the truth and in
instances within my knowledge admission to Part III accommodation
has transformed useless into useful members of society with
considerable personal enjoyment accruing to them as a result. So