View report page

and on the roads now represent a very much more serious problem
than do all the know infectious diseases considered together. Accidents
on the roads do not, of course, fall within the province of the
Public Health Department. But we are interested, extremely
interested in studying and in taking steps to prevent accidents in
the home. It is not so long ago, for instance, that a special Home
Safety Handbook was produced, a handbook which we have found
of the greatest use throughout the Borough. I have prepared
special articles for insertion in the local press ; while we continually
display suitable posters and have leaflets available in our clinics, in
the Public Health Department and in the Area Health Office.
Members of the staff of the Public Health Department and Area
Health Office have co-operated in giving talks on the value of home
safety, especially to mothers with young children, and to old people.
In this latter connection, an invitation was extended to all Old
People's Clubs in Southgate, offering to send a Health Visitor to
one of their meetings, so that the great value of non-inflammable
clothing materials could be demonstrated. We have also co-operated
with the hospitals serving Southgate in this field. The hospitals are
now sending me a list of accidents admitted from the Borough
especially accidents due to burns and scalds. We are thus in a
position to visit the homes from which these cases came—most of
them, of course, young children or old persons—and to see whether
there is any way in which we can prevent a repetition of the
unfortunate accident.
Altogether, home safety is a very good example of the way
in which health education can be shared between the Public Health
Department and the Area Health Office, i.e. between the Borough
Council and the County Council. Accidents in the home represent
a menace about which we must never be complacent. It is surely
illogical that we should be spending millions of pounds and using
an enormous number of staff to deal with the question of vaccination
against poliomyelitis, immunisation against diphtheria and vaccination
against smallpox, all three of which diseases do not account for
more than a few hundred deaths every year throughout the country:
yet, although there are many thousands of deaths annually from
accidents in the home, not to mention the countless number of
non-fatal injuries, we still seem to accept this fact as more or less
inevitable.
I would again conclude this Report by expressing my sincere
thanks to the Public Health Committee and to the Borough Council
for the unfailing courtesy and assistance extended to me as Medical
Officer of Health. I would also express my grateful thanks to every
member of the Public Health Department, with particular reference
to my Deputy Dr. Janet Campbell and to Mr. A. E. Gooday, Chief
6