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CHAPTER V.
ADMINISTRATION, STAFF, SUMMARY.
Pressure of work in the Department has not decreased during
this year. Indeed, the considerable changes necessitated by the
National Health Service Act of 1946 have entailed much reorganisation.
During the whole year I have been without a
Deputy Medical Officer of Health, either part-time or whole-time,
and medical cover necessary at times of statutory holidays and
my annual holiday has necessitated my remaining on call more
frequently, I feel, than is desirable.
Mr. Ryan, who worked in the Department since 4th August,
1927, vacated his post as Chief Clerk on being appointed to a
considerably more senior position with the Middlesex County
Council and left the service of the Borough on the 30th April.
No replacement could be obtained for Mr. Ryan until December,
when Mr. F. H. H. Smith commenced duties in the capacity of
Chief Clerk. The intervening time necessarily required considerable
industry and application from those remaining members of
the staff who maintained the work of the Department at its usual
high level.
It is interesting to record that field work undertaken by members
of the staff provided information and inspired the contribution
of articles to the medical press. The Sanitary Inspectors
collaborated with Dr. Betty Hobbs of the Central Public Health
Laboratory and one of them, Mr. L. Kluth, along with Dr. Hobbs,
published a survey of catering establishments in the Monthly
Bulletin of the Ministry of Health and the Public Health Laboratory
Service. As a result of the investigations undertaken during
the plague of mosquitoes in the summer, which necessitated our
collaboration with the Malaria Research Laboratory at Epsom,
Mr. P. G. Shute, M.B.E., F.R.E.S., Assistant Malaria Officer of
the Ministry of Health, published a second memorandum on the
culex molestus.
It would be invidious to single out and thank any member of
the staff for special mention as I am deeply indebted to each who
has contributed in his own sphere to the successful conclusion of
another year's work, but I would be neglecting a common courtesy
if I did not record my grateful thanks to Mr. Turner, the Chief
Sanitary Inspector, both for his assistance during the year and
the very material help he has afforded me in the preparation of
this report.
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