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To the
MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS
OF THE
BOROUGH OF SOUTHGATE
Mr. Mayor, Mrs. Winston and Gentlemen,
I beg to present the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of
Health for the year 1947.
The present Annual Report is unique in as much as it covers the
last full year during which the Borough Council remained the
Statutory Authority for Maternity and Child Welfare and the
personal Health Services.
There will be no need to expatiate on the fact that the coming
into operation of the National Health Service Act in July 1948
places the responsibility for those services on the County Council
as Local Health Authority; nor would any useful purpose be served
by discussing the pros and cons of the new regime. I am of opinion,
however, that opportunity should be taken in this, the last Annual
Report in its present form, to review the situation as it stood at the
end of 1947, to attempt to assess some of the results achieved, and
at least to suggest the manner in which the Borough Council can
co-operate in the new Health Services. The present Report will
therefore include brief historical reviews of past work, and various
paragraphs designed to place on permanent record the situation
which closed a long and very illustrious chapter in local government.
As the pattern of the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of
Health for 1948 is still in doubt, opportunity will also be taken in
the present Report to deal with changes in administration and
extensions to Public Health Services scheduled for the first six
months of 1948.
Apart from the topical significance of 1947, the year was noteworthy
for the fact that the staff of the Public Health Department
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