[Report 1956] / Medical Officer of Health, Ilkeston Borough.

  • Ilkeston (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1956
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1956] / Medical Officer of Health, Ilkeston Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/52 (page 3)
    ANNUAL REPORT of the MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Ilkeston. Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have pleasure in submitting the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1956. This report is on the work done by your former Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Laurie. I have to record that he resigned on obtaining a post in the Department of Health for Scotland. He left at the end of November, 1956. I am sure he would wish me to thank all those who were of assistance to him during his period of service. He was the first whole time Medical Officer to hold this combined appointment. It is never an easy task to be first to hold a new appointment. He set up and staffed a new office and left it on a firm basis. This is a report on his last year’s work so I can make little comment on the events of the year in the Borough, but I should like to draw attention to some items of importance and interest. In the statistical section of the report diseases notified were very low indeed. Generally it seems it has been a year of low prevalence. Attention should be drawn to the Chief Health Inspector’s report on meat inspection. To attain 100% inspection with a small staff, when animals may be slaughtered at any time during the week is a praiseworthy effort indeed. Co-operation of the slaughtermen and butchers is good but a considerable amount of overtime is worked by your staff to provide this service. It will be seen from the list of diseased meat prevented from reaching the shops and the housewife, that it is a very essential part of the Health Department work. Handling of diseased meat by the butcher and housewife could cause transfer of organisms to the individuals at home with serious consequences. The Food Hygiene Regulations, 1955, came into force at the beginning of the year. The Health Inspectors have done a considerable amount of quiet work in this connection but there has been some limitation because of the considerable pressure of work.