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Telephone: PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
TEDdington Lock 2223- 4 ELMFIELD HOUSE,
TEDdington Lock 4411-5 HIGH STREET,
TEDDINGTON.
To His Worship the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of
Twickenham
MR.MAYOR, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I have the honour to present the Annual Report on the work of
the Health Department; the statistical tables refer to the calendar
year 1963.
Development of the Services.
I have been your Medical Officer of Health for 26 years and this
is my twenty-sixth report; it is the last but one. For the last 16
years I have been the Area Medical Officer for Twickenham, Feltham,
Sunbury and Staines with a total population bordering on a quarter
of a million. With one or two minor exceptions the County Council
have delegated the management of all their personal health services
to the Area Committee, so that it has fallen to me with the able
co-operation of my medical, professional, and administrative
colleagues in the Health Department of both Borough and County to
manage these services and a staff of over 400. When I took over in
1948 some of the clinic services in the South-West part of the area
were very primitive. During the years we built four new clinics at
Hanworth, Bedfont, Stanwell, and Shepperton; purchased and converted
two houses for clinics at Sunbury and Staines; added extensions to
two clinics at Ashford and Spelthorne; built a new day nursery at
Feltham; and purchased a mobile clinic which goes round the area on
different days serving 15 rather inaccessible parts of the area.
The services and staff were correspondingly increased. Almost
every clinic is now working to near full capacity; infant welfare
attendances can often reach over 70. We have developed special
techniques for preventive medicine for older people at Church Road,
Teddington, and these clinics have already been extended to Whitton
and Hampton.
Training the Doctors.
We have trained our medical staff in the advanced techniques
for the early detection of disabilities in young babies to a far
more accurate degree than ever hitherto was thought possible.
The deaths of infants went up to 37 in 1963 whereas in previous
years it has generally been round about 16. No parent likes to
lose a baby. When I first came to Twickenham there used to be about
70 babies die each year. More than half of them died of infections
such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and enteritis. In 1963 we had 5 deaths
from these causes, more than usual which is disappointing; but the
hard core of congenital malformation remains the same today as it
was years ago. The need for a solution to this problem is manifest.
This year for the first time the Society of Medical Officers
of Health together with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
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