View report page

Telephone:TEDdington
Lock 4521
TEDdington Lock 4411
PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
ELMPIELD HOUSE,
HIGH STREET,
TEDDINGTON.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Twickenham.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for 1959 on the
health and sanitary conditions of the Borough together with the
supplement containing the statistical tables for 1958 as required
by the Ministry of Health.
The Minister of Health has called for this report as soon as
possible after the receipt of the vital statistics from the
General Register Office. I thought it best to get the report off
with the least delay by presenting it with other required tables
but without a lengthy dissertation. For the past nine years I have
endeavoured to give you an account of the progress in the medical
world and the changes in preventive and social medicine. I hope
you will be kind enough to excuse me from this task at present.
During the last eighteen months I have been more than fully
occupied in starting the new clinic for the elderly, trying to obtain
the instruments and equipment for it, putting it on a sound
basis, dealing with social, clinical and preventive medical
problems, experimenting with the various techniques, and observing
progress. The full report on these activities will be written
later.
In other fields there is plenty of activity; new ideas are
coming forward on all sorts of subjects. At Harrogate this year
the Royal Society of Health was discussing such subjects as
marriage preparation, mothers at work and family guidance; new
ideas on hospital planning; the epidemiology of mental illness;
air pollution; radiation levels, social sciences; modular or
standardised components in building; the changing pattern of infectious
diseases; and a lot more besides. In preventive medicine
there is never a dull moment; it is wonderfully exciting; there is
always some fresh problem to be solved, something new tp be seen
just over the horizon; it is a pleasure to be associated with it.
Once again it is a pleasure to acknowledge and commend the
untiring zeal and devotion to duty of the staff,both those with me
in Elmfield House and those outside in all the ramifications of our
service. As I have sail before,health is indivisible,and so except
on paper,I practically never think whether a person is Borough or
County - the important thing is to get the job done and get it done
well. I rely heavily on Dr. Cormack who has taken more than his share
of the work this year, on Mr. Easter, Mr. Pugh, Miss Francis, and
Miss Reeves, who continually keep me right on the rules and
regulations when my enthusiasm will tend to lead me to disregard
them, and all the other 400 odd members of the staff who carry on
2