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4
The year under review saw also the introduction of
another important Act—the Housing Act, 1930,—one of
the provisions of which requires local authorities to submit
to the Minister of Health a statement of their programmes
to improve the housing conditions of their areas
during the next five years—an effort to abolish the slums.
As far as Bromley is concerned the housing conditions are
excellent. We have no "slums" to compare with those
of many of the large industrial areas in England. A short
report on the housing conditions of Bromley appears in the
text of the Report.
To come to more local conditions during 1930—conditions
which are more fully dealt with in the report—perhaps
the most important one which requires recording is
the Small-pox epidemic, which reached Bromley in
February of the year. This necessitated the full energies
of the staff of the Health Department to be concentrated
on the control of the infection, and much of the routine
work such as home visiting under the Maternity and
Child Welfare service, inspection of district, etc., suffered
as a consequence. The daily examination of hundreds of
contacts cannot be performed without routine work suffering.
In October we began the supervision of midwives, a
work which is already showing the importance of this duty
being placed upon Maternity and Child Welfare authorities.
The year saw the first step in the amalgamation
of the district nursing associations in the Borough, so that
gradually within the Borough, administration is being
unified and localised, with the result that two active public
health functions remain outside local supervision, the
County schemes for Tuberculosis and vaccination. The fact
that a member of the health visiting staff attends the Tuberculosis
Dispensary does assist in the co-operation of the
work. The medical inspection of secondary schools in the
Borough has not yet been transferred to this Local
Authority.
The School Medical Report appears again under the
same cover as the Annual Health Report; the whole service
is one in practice as it is one in theory. We cannot, if
we are to promote a healthy people, divorce the services.