View report page

4
mortality is being intensified in the new departments of child health
of the nation's medical schools.
Housing. This is a terrifying problem. The social effects of
families crowded together are only too clear. As to health, every
public health officer is aware of the fact, for example, that children
are obliged to sleep even in the same room as cases of open tuberculosis,
that in not a few cases of maladjustment in children the housing
conditions are primarily responsible. Our lists of cases urgently
requiring rehousing on medical grounds grows and it is clear that
this is a formidable danger to the health of the citizen and to the
stability of the family.
Hospital Accommodation. The position in this matter approaches
breakdown. Large numbers of old people who require institutional
care and/or treatment, in their own interests and that of others, have
no reasonable expectation of securing it; cases of tuberculosis wait
long periods for beds, sometimes to their own detriment, very often
to the danger of their relatives, especially children ; maternity cases
are accommodated with difficulty, the demand among mothers for
hospital delivery, reinforced by housing difficulties, grow ever more
acute.
These problems are national not local, but are severely felt in Barnes.
Public health departments to-day in urban areas are faced not with
defective drains, poor water supplies, as were their predecessors, but
with housing and bed shortage. Improved nutrition, health centres,
prophylaxis, all these are very good and necessary, but public health
authorities are forced to realise that these measures alone cannot
effectively prevent ill health and disability in those persons who are
badly housed and/or unable to secure hospital accommodation when
necessary.
May I take this opportunity of thanking the authority for the
confidence placed in me by appointing me their Medical Officer of
Health and my thanks for the kindly relationship which has existed
between the authority and myself, and may I also be permitted to
express as an official my appreciation of the keen interest of the Council
and individual members in all matters affecting the public health.
Tribute must also be paid to the staff of the department for their
good work, the more notable under the present " bad housing conditions
" in which the department itself is still accommodated.
I have the honour to be,
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
July, 1947.
R. C. WEBSTER,
Medical Officer of Health.