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HEALTH & WELFARE DEPARTMENT,
TOWN HALL,
WALLIN GTON,
Surrey-
August, 1967
To The Worshipful the Mayor, Aldermen and Members of the Council
of the London Borough of Sutton.
Mr.Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report for 1966.
The work of the Health and Welfare Department has as its objective
the prevention of mental and physical ill-health and the support in
the community of those who are frail, handicapped by physical or
mental disability, and those who are at risk of becoming so handicapped.
This work involves the skills of many professional callings an account
of which will be found in the following pages. Many other departments
of the Council, however, make a significant contribution to the attainment
of positive health and the maintenance of physical and mental well-being
in the families which make up the population of the Borough. Positive
health is a state which can only be achieved in a favourable environment
in which to work and spend leisure time.
The Borough remained free of any major epidemics of infectious
disease throughout the year. Routine work in connection with the
prevention of spread of infection is done in an unspectacular way and
it is only when routine measures fail that epidemics are likely to occur.
This every day work involves the close collaboration of your staff with
general practitioners, hospitals, laboratories, schools, commercial
organisations large and small and not least, the infected persons,
in notification, investigation and preventive action.
It is well-known that protective immunisation is freely
available against the more serious infectious diseases such as diphtheria,
poliomyelitis, tetanus, smallpox, whooping cough and tuberculosis.
A community will only remain free of these diseases if the proportion
of persons protected against them is maintained at a high level. The
figures of children immunised in the Borough during the year reveal
that there are still far too many unprotected persons for safety. In
view of the wide publicity which is given to the need for immunisation
and the facilities which are available to obtain it, it is difficult to
understand why this situation occurs. In the interests of their
children's safety it is the duty of every parent to see that their
children are protected.
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