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RE-HOUSING PRIORITY ON MEDICAL GROUNDS
Eighty requests for priority for re-housing on medical grounds were
referred to rae for assessment, usually supported by a doctor's written certificate.

The forty applicants not recommended for medical priority include
(1) Illness not aggravated by housing conditions; (2) Temporary indispositions;
(3) Those pleading the discomforts of overcrowding and structural defects
(i.e. grounds other than medical); (4) Repeated requests already assessed.
SOCIAL SERVICES
As required by the Local Authority Social Services Act, 1970,
Essex County Council set up their Social Services Committee on 1st January,
1971. This Committee, and the Department serving it, assumed responsibility
during the year for the functions previously exercised by the Children's and
Welfare Committees of the County Council, and parts of those of the Health
Committee.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT RE-ORGANISATION
At the time of writing, the machinery by which the National Health
Service of the future will provide the new Local Government Authorities with
the clinical and advisory services hitherto carried out by their own Medical
Officers of Health has not been clearly defined. It is to be hoped, however,
that the special role of the Medical Officer of Health in small and medium
sized areas as a kind of interpreter between clinicians and the public,
accessible and accepted as an authority on a wide range of medical and social
matters, will not disappear from the scene. The number of people who come
to the Medical Officer of Health with a wide variety of complaints and
discontents, as well as requests for guidance, can be quite embarrassing
at times, but this function, as well as his power to act in some instances,
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