London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hackney 1958

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]

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7
Public Health Inspectors Education Board. The approved establishment of
Pupil Public Health Inspectors is six, and at the end of the year there were
three vacancies.
Welfare of Aged Persons. Hackney Association for Workshops for the Elderly,
established in 1956, run by a voluntary Committee and subsidised to the extent
of £400 by the Borough Council, has had another successful year. About 80
aged man and women were provided with work within their ability, and it is now
accepted that the employment of elderly persons under these conditions is of
inestimable value to health and well being, both from the preventive and
therapeutic aspects. The Hackney Association for the Welfare of Old People
which again received a grant of some £1,250 from the Borough Council, continued
to provide most excellent services for the aged section of the community, and
details of their work is set out in the part of the Report dealing with the
Welfare of Aged Persons,
Once again the writing of the Annual Report gives me the opportunity, in
my capacity as Medical Officer of Health, to express my continued appreciation
of the help and co-operation we, in this Department, receive from the many
persons and organisations with whom our daily work brings us into contact
Our relationships with the General Medical Practitioners in the borough
continue to be most amicable, and this also applies to the professional and
administrative staffs of the hospitals in the borough Out contacts with the
Divisional Medical Officer of the County Council, and the staff of his Department
at Drysdale Street are many and frequent, and I am glad to have this
occasion to record my thanks for the help we again received from them. The
many voluntary organisations in the borough cover a wide range of social
welfare activities, and one and all of these organisations are always willing
to co-operate with the Department.
We have again received from the Chief Officers and members of the staffs
of other departments of the Council every possible assistance, and I am very
happy to express my thanks to them.
The staff and employees of the Public Health Department have had another
year of hard work they have carried out their many and varied duties most
loyally and efficiently, and I regard it a great privilege to have the honour
to direct them. The Department suffered a real loss by reason of the death in
June of Mr. G. F. J. Toll, one of our district Public Health Inspectors,
Mr. Toll came to the Department in December, 1955 on his retirement from the
Bermondsey Borough Council. He was a very experienced, and despite his age,
a most active Inspector, and during his stay here he did some really
excellent work, The vacancy for the appointment of Chief Public Health
Inspector, occasioned by the death of Mr. Alexander in February, was filled
in April by the promotion of Mr. T. A. Wilson, the Deputy Chief Public Health
Inspector,
In conclusion it is, as always, a great pleasure to have this opportunity
of expressing to the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee, and
to the Members of the Council as a whole, my very sincere gratitude for their
most helpful understanding of the many difficulties with which the Public
Health Department is confronted, and for the support which they gave to me and
to the staff generally throughout the year.
I am, Mr, Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
JOHN FENTON,
Medical Officer of Health.