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shall need to keep our eye very firmly on the goal while we weather the storms caused by the
mistakes we make on the way.
Let us not, however, get bemused by structure. It is not an end in itself. All sorts of bad
structures work quite well if the human relationships are right while good ones can easily founder
if someone determines they shall. Ironically some of the doctors one would seek out to treat
oneself are the very ones who can be an administrator's nightmare. They will fight anyone on behalf
of their patients - including the administration! At the same time while efficient tidy management is
a good and constructive thing it is not the highest aim, and must not become a sacred cow to which
all else is sacrificed.
This report contains contributions from the various senior officers of the department setting
out different areas of the work and I hope that they will be widely read.
The problem of shortage of public health inspectors not only stays with us but gets worse.
I must repeat my comments in my last Annual Report on this subject for at the time of writing the
situation is critical. The whole of the Council's programme of redevelopment of its outworn areas
could at any moment founder on this one problem, for priority must always be given to those duties
which protect us from the diseases of environmental origin.
It is absolutely essential that the Council should convey to our Inspectors and to any who
might seek employment with us how much they are valued as a section of the Council's work. This
is done already by personal expressions of thanks and consideration of conditions of service
(though there is always scope for improvement there!) In addition there is an opportunity, as the
Council reviews its departmental structures, to ensure that the Public Health Inspectorate after
reorganisation is on a stable footing with a strong corporate identity and good career prospects
without the necessity of moving to another authority to find them.
The nursing services have expanded and completed the conversion to working in attachment
with general practitioners and have made strides in tidying up the various problems which arose in
the wake of this advance. Miss Pittom sets out other advances achieved during the year. Certainly
the generous increase in establishment which the Council approved in the latter part of the year
gives room for the first class School Health Service which members have now every right to expect,
at least on the nursing side.
The recruitment of public health doctors for infant welfare and the school health service is
now back with us as a problem though we have some answers. After several months of excellent
progress when we enjoyed the position of having all the posts in our increased establishment full
we have since 1972 in quick succession had the resignation of three doctors-all reluctantly and
because of personal circumstances.
On Chiropody we have had a year where the wonderfully good work which as always is done
by this service has for some areas been overshadowed by the shortage of staff. We have had
difficulties before but they have always been overcome. This time they have not and we are feeling
the pinch as a national shortage shows itself in a failure to recruit locally. The answer is the
national one of training more chiropodists but that will take years and the prospects in the short
term are bleak.
Dentistry, Speech Therapy, Physiotherapy have all had their staffing problems also. In
Administration the fact that the clerical services we share with the Social Services Department
have been in difficulties of recruitment has meant that we have also shared in the problems
created; the great goodwill between the two departments which is such a feature of Waltham
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