View report page

closely integrated. Because of the pressure of other duties, our
Inspectors are not always able to visit as many shops as they
would like. Fortunately, however, our staff of Public Health
Inspectors has changed very little over the past years. The
Inspectors therefore know the shops which require more frequent
attention, and see to it that this attention is duly applied.
I have very little to add to the paragraph on Health Education
which appeared in my Annual Report for 1960. As the Council
will be aware, I am a frequent contributor to the local press,
whenever I consider that an article is required on a subject of
topical importance. In this connection, I would once again like
to thank the Editors of our local press for their unfailing helpfulness
and courtesy. Nothing has been of greater help to me over
the past thirty-one years. We also readily accede to any request
for a health talk by a local organisation, with or without an
accompanying film show. As should be the case, health education
in Southgate is closely bound up with the work carried out by
the staff of the Middlesex County Council, so that talks are given
by Health Inspectors, Assistant Medical Officers, Health Visitors
or myself, according to the type of talk required and the special
abilities of each Section of the staff to undertake these duties.
Abundant leaflets, bookmarks, etc. on health matters are available
both in the Public Health Department and in the Area Health
Office ; and also in our Clinics and in the County Libraries. When
any particular subject calls for the display of posters, this method
of propaganda is also utilised, to the full. Altogether, as I have said
so often, the neglect of health education is a major blunder.
Fortunately, Southgate has never fallen into this pitfall.
As the Council may be aware, I have been a regular monthly
contributor to the magazine "Better Health" since 1948. I like
to think that these articles are extensively read and that, as the
articles are syndicated in many parts of the world, the name of
Southgate is being widely publicised outside this country. This
may be in many ways a trivial matter, but it still gives me great
pleasure to think that so many articles, which carry my name and
the designation of the three districts for which I act as Medical
Officer of Health, are being so widely circulated.
Although the vital significance of the connection between
smoking and health, not only lung cancer but also bronchitis,
coronary thrombosis and such diseases as gastric ulcers, has only
exploded into the public consciousness within the past few months,
this problem has been before us for many years, certainly since
the issue of the Registrar-General's statistical report which proved
7