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6
fall in the numbers of these new cases would indicate that the position
is perhaps returning to that obtaining just before the outbreak of the war
when it seemed that this scourge was at last on the way to being overcome.
This section, and others throughout the report, contains information
relating to this district which has been abstracted from the census
report for the county of Middlesex.
The second section sets out particulars of the various health services,
being those more especially concerned with the individual. These are a
product of this century. Up to the end of the last century the personal
health services for the individual were very limited, being restricted to
hospital provision for the infectious sick, some arrangements for the
mentally sick and some help under the Poor Law Service. The earlier
of the personal services, maternity and child welfare and school health
were made the responsibility of the larger of the county districts as
well as of the Councils of Counties and County Boroughs. The
Education Act and then the National Health Service Act removed
these responsibilities from the District Councils (minor authorities)
transferring them to the Councils of the Counties (major authorities).
The hospital service of the country had its origin in two main sources;
whereas most of the hospitals for acute general cases were voluntary
establishments, the hospitals for those with infectious complaints including
tuberculosis and the institutions for the mentally defective were
provided by local authorities. On the break-up of the Poor Law by the
Local Government Act, 1929, local authorities (major authorities) became
responsible for the first time for providing general medical and surgical
accommodation. The National Health Service Act of 1946 transferred
nearly all these establishments to the Minister of Health to be administered
by Regional Hospital Boards so that they were no longer the
responsibility of any type of local authority. The same Act made the
major authorities responsible for providing many services which up to
then had been maintained by voluntary agencies of one sort or another.
In this way major authorities became responsible for maintaining a home
nursing service; they also took over the midwifery service and the home
help service where these had up to this been provided by the minor
authorities. A list of the health services of a locality then includes some
administered by the agents of the Minister of Health, most of the rest of
them in an area like this by the County Council. Many County Councils
have made arrangements for the day to day administration of certain of
their local health services to be carried out by local committees comprising
not only members of the County Council and members of the
District Council, but also others with special experience in certain phases
of the work of the committee. The county of Middlesex was divided into
ten areas, for each of which a local Area Committee was appointed.
Area No. 5 is coterminous with the Borough of Harrow. Many of the
County Council's services referred to in the second section of this report
then are administered by the local Area Committee. The Education
Act provides for delegation to the local divisional executive which
is in effect the Council with some others, of certain of the local
education services including the administration of the school health
services. These comprise essentially the arrangements for the routine