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Over the greater part of the service this has been a year of consolidation, and of
adjustment of administrative system and organisation in the light of experience. Attention
may, nevertheless, be drawn to a few salient points. The increase in the demands on the
home nursing and domestic help services continued. This was in part a reflection of the
shift in the balance of treatment away from the hospital services towards the patient's home.
Insofar as this spares the limited hospital facilities for those with the greatest need and
avoids unnecessary uprooting from familiar home surroundings it is a not unwelcome development,
but It does have the effect of transferring some of the burden of medical care from the
hospital to the local health authority services. A large part of the resources of the
domestic help service is devoted to enabling old folk to manage in reasonable comfort in
their own homes for as long a time as possible; and it will require a proper sense of
balance to ensure that the reasonable needs of some of the younger sections of the community,
e.g., expectant and lying-in mothers, are not swamped by this very laudable objective.
An account is also given, in the Supervisor's Report, of the continuing development
of the Occupation Centre in response to the growing needs; reference is particularly made
to pages 55 & 56.
In the School Health Service a determined effort was made to tackle the problem of
uncleanliness in school children by calling more extensively on the powers provided by the
Education Act, 1944 (see pages 61 to 63). Preliminary results have been encouraging, but it
Is not yet possible to say how effective it will eventually prove. The same section of
the report (pages 77 to 8l) also gives an account of the changes in the various categories
of handicapped pupils introduced by Statutory Instrument during the year.
It gives me great pleasure to close my remarks by expressing my grateful appreciation
of the consideration and support which the Committee have consistently extended to me, and
my thanks to the staff of all grades and sections whose tireless efforts have made It
possible to report so much that is satisfactory.
I am,
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
P. ROY DENNIS ON.
Medical Officer of Health
and Principal School Medical Officer.
Health Department,
225, Romford Road,
West Ham, E.7.
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