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5
Public Health Department,
Council Offices,
Billet Lane,
HORNCHURCH,
Essex.
12th May, 1960.
Telephone:
Hornchurch 52555.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Hornchurch Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present my Report for 1959.
Environmental hygiene is in danger of becoming (or has already
become?) outmoded and in this connection it is both salutary and
refreshing to quote (by kind permission) an extract from the 1958 Annual
Report of Dr. Matthew Burn, the Medical Officer of Health of the
City of Birmingham, viz.:—
"The personal health service is naturally popular as the benefits
derived are, in the main, individual. Environmental health on the
other hand is general rather than individual and not obviously
spectacular in achievement. It has been necessary to ensure that
this essential feature of Public Health has not been subjugated
by the personal health service. Environmental health services arc
highly effective in preventing illness on a large scale and these,
together with epidemiology, another 'essential' in the field of public
health, are major factors of the preventive machinery of the local
authority."
In an age when the superlative represents the most modest
descriptive term and glamour tends to warp judgment (this of course is
not a new happening) any emphasis on the prosaic but effective and
necessary services (such as the Environmental health service) is indeed
timely.
Statistics.
As against last year the Birth Rate is slightly down, the Death Rate
slightly up and the Infant Mortality Rate at 19.05 is also higher.
General Picture.
The work of the Department in matters of Housing. Infectious
Disease and Food and Drugs pursued a routine course.