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7
BOROUGH OF ROMFORD
To His Worship the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Borough of Romford :
Mr. Mayor, Ladies, and Gentlemen,
I have the honour, herewith, to present to you this, my Annual
Report on the Health of the district for the year 1948.
This is the Fifteenth Report in the series, since I was appointed
your Medical Officer of Health, and it is drawn up in accordance
with the requirements of Articles 6(3), and 17(5) of the Sanitary
Officers' (Outside London) Regulations, 1935, as modified by
Circular 3/49 of the Ministry of Health, dated 17th January, 1949.
This Circular states that the Report should be prepared on the lines
of that for 1947.
As is well known to all the Members, the outstanding feature
of the year has been the introduction of a new system of administration.
occasioned by the inception of the National Health Service
Act on the 5th July, which was nominated by the Minister of Health
as the "Appointed Day."
The main feature is that the Essex County Council is now the
Local Authority for the administration of functions, relating to
Maternity and Child Welfare, Domiciliary Midwifery, Home
Nursing, Prevention of Illness, Care and After Care, etc., and. for
the purpose of the administration, the County has been divided into
11 Areas, and each has a Health Area Sub-Committee. Romford,
in this respect, is one of these areas.
For convenience, and, in order to give a proper picture of conditions
as they apply to the Public Health of the District, and,
after all the services mentioned above have a very close bearing on
public health in general, I have throughout this report given
statistics as they relate to the whole of the year, and have not
endeavoured to divide them into two parts, as between those relating
to conditions as they existed before and after the 5th July.
It only remains for me to say that the statistics reveal a steady
improvement, and auger well for the future.
As before, my best thanks go to all members of my staff, who
have assisted in the work of the department, and in the compilation
of this report, to my fellow officials for their kind assistance during
the year, and to all the Members of the Council, who, at all times
show a keen interest in the well-being of the inhabitants of the
town.
I am,
Mr. Mayor, Ladies, and Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
JAMES B. SAMSON,
Public Health Department, Medical Officer of Health
Town Hall,
Romford.
May, 1949.