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TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS OF THE BOROUGH OF LEYTON
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit the Annual Report of the Department. As required by
the Ministry of Health, and for the convenience of Members, this also includes sections
on the County Health Services (National Health Service Act-Part III Services) and the
School Health Service.
My predecessor, Dr.M. Watkins, resigned on 31st October, 1959, to take up a similar
post in the Borough of Walthamstow after a period of four years* service with this
Authority. From that date until I took up my appointment on 1st March, 1960, Dr. Mary L.
Gilchrist acted as Medicai Officer of Health.
Since assuming my duties, I have been most impressed with the standard of the
health services in Leyton, and I feel that I am fortunate in being appointed to such a
well established service. Public health, however, is never static and there is always
the challenge of changing patterns of community health, of new legislation, and of
modern thought and re-orientation of views, and I look forward to the prospects of
playing my part in developing the service to meet the new problems which will face the
various Committees dealing with the work of the Department in the future.
As this report constitutes a review of a year during which different officers have
been responsible for the work of the Health Department it cannot be otherwise than
fragmentary.
In the section of the report dealing with the sanitary circumstances of the area
(for which I am indebted to Mr B.J. Ashcroft, Chief Public Health Inspector) attention
is drawn to the progress being made in slum clearance and the action so far taken in
respect of smoke control areas. Both slum clearance and the implementation of the Clean
Air Act, 1956, will impose considerable duties upon the public health inspectorate for
many years. It is pleasing, however, to contemplate the foundations which are being
laid so that future generations in Leyton will enjoy better planned housing and cleaner
air.
The personal health services (i.e. Part III National Health Service Act, 1946)
continue to serve the public, and I consider Leyton very fortunate in having three
excellent clinic centres each covering an area constituting a population of approximately
30,000 persons. The disposition of the medical officers, health visitors and chiropody
staff to the clinics is a tribute to the foresight of my predecessors, and it is
extremely pleasing to observe mothers of small children calling at the clinics for
advice outside child welfare service sessions. Extremely valuable work has been carried
out by Miss Roger, senior health visitor at Leyton Green Clinic, in her formation of
the Mothers* Club. This is health education at its best, allied with the promotion of
social intercourse between young mothers.
The poliomyelitis programme during the year has been extremely heavy, due to the
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