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The Medical Officer of Health is a member of the Joint Hospital
Services Committee for Hackney and The City of London, and the Joint
Study Group on Child Care of the Joint Hospital Services Committee for
Tower Hamlets, Hackney and The City of London.
The Co-ordinating Nursing Off icer serves on the Area Nurse Training
Committee of the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, the
Joint Nursing Services Group for Hackney and City of London and the
Nurse Education Committee for St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
In January, a Senior Nursing Officer was appointed to act as a
link between the local authority and hospital nursing services. She has
played a valuable contribution in this field of work and serves on the
following committees: Joint Child Care Study Group of the Joint Hospital
Services Committee for Tower Hamlets, Hackney and The City of London,
the Nurse Education Committees for Hackney Hospital, and the Kingsland
School of Nursing and the Joint Nursing Services Group, Hackney and The
City of London.
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
On 1 April, with the coming into force of both the Local Authority
Social Services Act, 1970, and the Education (Handicapped Children)
Act, 1970, the responsibility for the running of the local mental health
services was transferred from the Health Department to the newly-formed
Hackney Social Services Department and the Inner London Education
Authority respectively. The Health Department thus found itself acting
in a somewhat strange capacity as advisers and consultants to these
departments for services it had administered directly since the formation
of the new London Borough in 1965.
Under the new arrangements the mental health social workers, staff
of the adult training centre and the day centres, together with the
premises, became an integral part of the Social Services Department.
The junior training centre and special care units, with their staff,
were transferred to the Inner London Education Authority, the premises
being known as Ickburgh School and Marsh House School. The Health
Department's fleet of special transport likewise passed to the control
of the new organisations. As the school health service now functioned
as an integral part of the new schools, the Principal Medical Officers
concerned with school health and mental health were working in the
capacity of school medical officers. Several meetings between senior
staff of the Departments were held in connection with the change of
responsibility.
By the end of March the foundations were laid for a special care
unit for severely handicapped children attached to the Ickburgh Training
Centre. This unit was financed by the Spastics Society and was to be
the first of several units which the Society hoped to construct in
various parts of the country. The Hackney Council were pleased to be