[Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council.

Wiltshire (England). County Council.

Date:: 1972

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

7/78 (page 3)

Foreword The period beginning on the 1st January, 1972 has been more notable for the shadows of coming events than for current changes affecting health in Wiltshire. However, 1972 saw the implementation of the scheme for nursing management in accordance with the recommendations of the Report of the Working Party on Management Structure in the Local AuthorityNursing Services. Miss E. Search, hitherto Superintendent Health Visitor, took up the appointment of Director of Nursing Services in April, 1972. A Divisional Nursing Officer was appointed with particular responsibility for training and health education and five nursing areas were set up, each with an Area Nursing Officer. By September, 1973, each area had in addition two nursing officers to assist with the administration of the health visiting and the nursing and midwifery services. Geographically the nursing areas will fit within future health districts. A vasectomy service was agreed in principle in December, 1972 and approval has now been given to a start being made early in 1974. Better progress was at last made in planning health centres, only to be frustrated by the Government’s decision in June, 1973, to call a halt to the implementation of new schemes except for those which on examination by the Department of Health and Social Security were held to have expecially high priority. The effect of this has been to leave in suspension four health centre projects intended to be started in 1973/74 and six intended for 1974/75, and an application for priority for some of these has not yet been decided by the Department. This economy measure, like most others which affect the health services, has been applied across the country apparently regardless of the existing level of health centre provision in particular places, and in Wiltshire it has resulted in a set-back just at a moment when the situation appeared to be much more promising after initial difficulties. The last two years have mainly been notable for the increasing attention which has had to be given to the preparations for the reorganisation of the National Health Service. The personal health services provided by the County Council as the Local Health Authority will become the responsibility of the new Wiltshire Area Health Authority on the 1st April, 1974. The new Wiltshire County Council will thereafter have a small Health Depart¬ ment with responsibility for mainly environmental services ; the remainder of the staff of the present Health Department will almost all be transferred to the Area Health Authority. Clearly reorganisation will not mean that the new County Council will cease to require medical advice and a close relationship will be needed between certain aspects of its work and that of the Area Health Authority. It is intended that there shall be a Joint Consultative Committee to further collaboration between the Area Health Authority and the County Council with supporting arrangements for liaison between officers and that two specified community medicine specialists employed by the Area Health Authority shall be responsible for advising the County Council and its Social Services and Education Committees. In addition advice and support will be avail¬ able on more general matters, including health questions affecting the staff of the County Council. Although as far as is known there will remain a statutory requirement for an Annual Report of the County Medical Officer of Health to be made for 1973 and presumably for the first quarter of 1974, the present Report is the last which can be presented to the Health Committee of the existing County Council and I have included in this foreword references to events in 1973. The transfer of the personal health services from the administrative responsibility of local health authorities marks the end of a very important period in local authority activity in the health field and it appeared appropriate to include in this Report a brief history of the health services of the Wiltshire County Council from their inception in 1899 with the appointment of the first County Medical Officer of Health to the present time. This account, for much of the work of the preparation of which I am indebted to members of the staff of the Health Department, will be found in the pocket inside the cover. This marsupialisation of the last statutory annual report which will be presented to the Local Health Authority is primarily the result of present difficulties affecting the printers which have made it necessary to produce the history as a separate appendix. However, the arrangement may have some advantages. I should like to express my appreciation of the constant consideration and support which the Health Com¬ mittee and their Sub-Committees have given to the whole range of health services during the time that I have been County Medical Officer of Health and of the help through the years of the other Chief Officers. The help of colleagues in genera] practice and in the hospital service has been indispensable not only in enabling the best use to be made of the County Council’s health service but in reaching a level of co-operation where these services should be able to be integrated with the rest of the National Health Service with little difficulty. While N.H.S. reorganisation is inevitably producing problems for many, it causes on the whole a more serious upheaval for those who work in the local government health field. The staff of the Health Department, throughout Wiltshire and at County Hall, have not allowed present uncertainties to diminish the excellent standard of work and the enthusiasm to provide the best possible service which they have consistently shown through the years. I wish to thank them most sincerely. Health Department C. D. L. LYCETT. County Hall, TROWBRIDGE. January, 1974.