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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 my report, as requested by the Ministry of Health, on
the factors affecting the health of the people of Leyton during 1963, and on the health
of the population as individuals, including reference to the work of the School Health
Service.
The health of the public is promoted by engineering, by the deployment of special
knowledge and skills, and by making the widest possible use of the spirit of care for
others which is so plentiful in the many voluntary organisations. In all three of these
fields there has been progress and each new venture promises an exciting and rewarding
future.
The reconstruction of the main outfall system and new sewage pumping station at
the Auckland Road Depot which the Borough Engineer reports in these pages (p.8) reminds
one that the engineering component in the promotion of health must be radical and
expensive, as do the impressive new housing projects, for good housing is without doubt
a major need for the health of many Leyton residents.
The new day nursery in Epsom Road (p.37) - one of the first of its kind in Essex
provides almost all that physical environment can in respect of the benefits of air,
light and space so necessary for children.
Though major construction will always catch the public imagination, the constant
systematic work of the Public Health Inspectorate - so easily taken for granted - does
more for health than could be guessed. The absence of an epidemic is not news. The months
of detailed work behind the Avenue Road and Morris Road slum clearance enquiry (p.15)
in June will be forgotten long before young families are learning, in fine new dwellings
on the site, what life is like free of damp, darkness and family tension. The timeconsuming
routine which is connected with the introduction of Smoke Control Areas 3 and
4 (p.18), approved in February, will never be appreciated by those chronic bronchitics
who have extra years of life and freedom from bouts of gasping and coughing due entirely
to this work.
The routine complaints and enquiries by the public will continue and the intriguing
variety of foreign substances found in food must be followed up, but new responsibilities
are ahead. The inspectorate will soon have the duty of ensuring that employees in
offices, shops and railway premises are working under conditions where their health and
safety are protected. The Chief Public Health Inspector refers to the new Offices, Shops
and Railway Premises Act in his section of this report (p.12).
The knowledge and skills of the staff of the personal health services - medical,
dental, nursing, medical auxiliary and others - can never be of too high quality and
courses of specialist instruction will always be essential to maintain those services
for which only local authority staff have the experience and qualifications. In addition
to the courses attended by doctors, health visitors and others from the Health Department,
an innovation this year was the introduction of courses for training for the Home
Helps, including them all in two local courses. These courses (p. 50) did a great deal
to improve the quality of the service.
There is also advantage to be gained from new knowledge, and research must always
be part of a Health Department's activities. Four local items of research were started
during the year by individuals on the staff (on bronchitis, ante-natal psychological
factors, educationally sub-normal school leavers, and wind in babies). It will not be
possible to report on these until further work has been done. In addition we have been
co-operating with a number of national research projects. We are particularly pleased
to welcome the Medical Research Council Unit studying environmental factors in Mental
and Physical Illness (p.40) and give such help as we can in the study of families and
conditions in Leyton.
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