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4
To the Chairman and Members of the
Orpington Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
•
It is once again my pleasant task to report to you a year of
consolidation and progress in the Public Health Department, in
this the eighteenth edition of the annual report of the Medical
Officer of Health.
The Public Health Department is now firmly established in
permanent office accommodation at the main Council Offices at
Crofton Pound Hill. The effect of this change has been to
increase the stature of the department in the eyes of the public
and it has had a stimulating effect on the staff with regard to
their morale and pride of work.
The general structure of the report has been maintained
upon the lines of the last report and it is hoped that it will
prove of interest to the members of the Council. It should be
realised that a report such as this, necessitates good team work
and I would like to pay tribute to all the members of the staff
who have contributed to this effort and, especially to Mr. Weedy
who has devoted many arduous hours to the checking and
compilation of the many facts contained in it.
I would draw your attention to a few of the most interesting
features of the year, amongst which must be numbered the
census, the visit of the mass radiography unit, the clean food
exhibition and film show, the incidence of certain infectious
diseases and the vital statistics.
The census figures are reported upon fairly comprehensively
elsewhere in this report, but it should be stressed that these
figures are only preliminary ones and it is hoped that at some
future date it will be possible to give a much more detailed
statistical analysis of the population distribution.
The visit of the mass radiography unit to Orpington was
arranged in December, 1951, when a number only just short of
two thousand people had chest x-rays. This is a truly preventive
service for there is surely no better example in medicine than that
of pulmonary tuberculosis of the truth of the old adage that " a
stitch in time saves nine." It is indeed to be hoped that in the
not too distant future the unit will be able to pay us annual
visits with corresponding benefits to the health of the district.
The results of the findings at these x-ray examinations have been
analysed and detailed figures will be found in the section dealing