[Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council.

  • North Riding of Yorkshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/118 (page 14)
    In accordance with the scheme of delegation and the Standing Orders of the County Council, the following functions are reserved to the Central Administration (Finance Committee and/or Health Committee as the case may be) :— (#) the power of raising a rate ; (b) the power of borrowing money ; (c) the alteration or revocation of this scheme ; (d) the purchase, leasing or sale of any land or buildings ; (e) the appointment of clerical stalf and of officers of the County Council except those referred to above ; (/) the dismissal of any officer or employee ; (g) the revision of any scale of salaries or wages which has been approved by the County Council ; (.h) the preparation and modification of any proposal required by the National Health Service Act, 1946. A table on page 19 sets out in some detail the scheme of local administration by area sub-committees. It will be seen, therefore, that a real effort has been made to incorporate local representatives in the sub¬ committee to give them an opportunity to build up a sound and economical service and to make use of their local knowledge to remedy defects and eliminate abuses. The decentralisation scheme can be said to have worked reasonably well within these limits. The Mental Health Services Sub-Committee, however, have functions which are an exception to this decentralisation. The executive medical officers in the areas and the local sub-committees were consulted in 1948 and both officers and members felt it was desirable that the care of the mentally ill and mentally defective should not be decentralised, but should be retained under a central committee composed of persons with special knowledge of the problems and the care, both in the community and in institutions, of such defectives. Co-ordination at officer level is provided in that the scheme for whole-time medical officers of health prepared by the County Council under Section 111 of the Local Government Act, 1933, provided the basis of each area sub-committee ; in the case of the Scarborough area the medical officer of health of the three sanitary districts acts as divisional school medical officer and executive medical officer to the local health sub-committee as well as medical officer of health. In the other nine areas each assistant county medical officer is (or will be in due course) medical officer of health of all districts in his area and acts also as a local school medical officer ; he is assisted by one senior clerk and other clerical staff. District health offices are established at centres shown in the table below—