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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
To the Chairman and Members of the Urban District Council
of Harrow.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to submit the Annual Report on the Health and Sanitary
Circumstances of the District for the year 1949.
The Sanitary Officers (Outside London) Regulations, 1935, which
revoked previous similar provisions, set out the duties of certain officers.
Paragraph 17 of these regulations reads: A medical officer of health
in respect of the district for which he is appointed shall (1) inform himself
as far as practicable respecting all matters affecting or likely to
affect the public health in the district, and be prepared to advise the
local authority on any such matter. . . .; (5) as soon as practicable after
the 31st day of December in each year make an annual report to the
local authority for the year ending on that date on the sanitary circumstances,
the sanitary administration, and the vital statistics of the
district, containing, in addition to other matters on which he may consider
it desirable to report, such information as may, from time to time,
be required by the Minister. The Minister usually sends out a circular
indicating the form the report should take. On the 25th January,
1950, he issued Circular 2/50 asking that the Council should direct that
the report for 1949 should be prepared on the lines of that for 1948.
" Besides dealing generally with matters within the medical officer of
health's responsibility regarding public health and preventive medicine,
the report should, as appropriate, deal specifically with the National
Health Service Act, 1946, the review of the working of the arrangements
made for providing the local health services under Part III and the
mental health services, the operation of Section 47 of the National
Assistance Act, 1948, water supply, sewerage, food and the administration
of matters under Parts 1 and 8 of the Factories Act, 1937."
In the Memorandum of the duties of medical officers of health, it
is stated that the chief function of the medical officer of health is to
safeguard the health of the area for which he acts by such means as are
at his disposal. He should endeavour to acquire an accurate knowledge
of the influences, social, environmental and industrial, which might
operate prejudicially to health in the area and of the agencies, official
or unofficial, whose help can be invoked in amelioration of such influences.
While he has special duties for the prevention of infectious diseases, all
morbid conditions contributing to a high sickness rate or morbidity in
the area from these or other causes should be studied with a view to
their prevention and control.
The health services of a district now comprise the activities of a
number of authorities. The district council, in many areas, provides
many of the essential environmental services including drainage and
sewerage, water supply, housing, roads, and the collection and disposal
of house refuse. Others of their activities, such as the provision of
parks and open spaces, green belt schemes, town planning, etc., are