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PREFACE.
Public Health Offices,
Ilford.
October, 1944.
Me. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I herewith submit the Annual Report for the year 1943 as required by
the Ministry of Health and Board of Education.
This is the 24th Annual Report which I have submitted to you, and in
October, 1944, 1 shall have been for a quarter of a century Medical Officer
of Health to the Town of Ilford.
The Health Services have been built up to their present state of efficiency
by the correlation of the various activities mentioned year by year in the
Annual Report. It will be highly unfortunate for the health of the district
if the School Medical Service is to be carried out by one Authority, the
Maternity Service by another Authority, the Isolation Hospital by another
Authority, and the remainder of the Public Health Services by still another
Authority. Such proposals which are at present being envisaged will lead
neither to efficiency nor to economy. It is unfortunate that Ilford was not
made a County Borough many years ago, and it is also unfortunate that in
the new health proposals the Health Services which are primarily concerned
with the prevention and detection and treatment of disease in its earliest
forms should be mixed up with the treatment of sickness and the sickness
benefits which are at present administered by the Insurance Committee.
During war-time it is necessary to limit the observations which I might
have to make on the advance in the Public Health Services which have taken
place during the past 25 years.
I would refer the Council again to the Table on page 11 of the Report,
which shows the infantile death rate to be 35, very much lower than any
of the other comparative figures. It will be noted on page 30 of the Report
that 3 deaths from Diphtheria occurred, none of the fatal cases having been
previously immunised against Diphtheria, which adds weight again to the
insistence with which parents have been advised as to the necessity of this
protection.
An outbreak of Influenza commenced in November, and together with
it many severe cases of Influenzal Pneumonia. By evacuating some of the
beds which had been loaned to the Essex County Council for cases of Pulmonary
Tuberculosis patients with Pneumonia were able to be admitted to
the Isolation Hospital, and it will be noted that on the 1st January, 1944,
there were 27 cases in the Hospital.
In spite of war-time difficulties and the fact that 2 of the Clinics have
not been able to be used for their proper purpose, the large attendances at
the Special Clinics will be seen from the figures given in the Maternity and
Child Welfare and the School Medical Sections of the Report.
Unfortunately, the King George Hospital has found it is unable to
establish a Child Guidance Clinic for the examination and psychological
treatment of delinquent and difficult children, and I must express my
indebtedness to Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, for their assistance in
allowing such children to attend the Psychiatric Department conducted by
Dr. Ffoulkes Edwards. With the war the number of such children has
increased, and as I have pointed out on various occasions, it is highly
desirable that such a Clinic should be readily available for children only,
also that a number of mentally defective children who are educable should
not be left as at present without the special means of education which they
require. In my Annual Report for the year 1924, I pointed out the difficulties
which arose from the position (1) that there are two definitions of
feeble-minded persons—for those over the age of 16 years and those under.
In those under 16 the question of educability is the sole factor to be considered;
(2) that even for persons under the age of 16 years the definitions