[Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, St Albans City & R.D.C.

  • St. Albans (England). City & Rural District Council.
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, St Albans City & R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/60 (page 16)
    National Health Service Act. The arrangements made by the Hertfordshire County Council for the implementation of this Act, and especially the scheme of Divisional Medical Officers, has, in my opinion, proved a very great success. The figures for maternal and infantile mortality certainly bear this out and I have no hesitation in saying that from enquiries of my colleagues in other parts of the country the Hertfordshire scheme is the best in England. The taking a'way of maternity and child welfare, and school medical services, from the small local authorities has caused many heart burnings, but the Act is an act and Hertfordshire have applied that Act in the way that secures the greatest possible benefit to all. The appoint¬ ment of your Medical Officer of Health as Divisional Medical Officer is intended to give you as close a link as is possible under the Act with the “ personal services ” provided by the Local Health Authority,” i.e., the County Council, and I am at all times only too pleased to answer questions on such County Health Services as you may wish to ask. You, the members of the two councils, are obviously in close touch 'with the people for whom these services are provided and incidentally paid for. If you hear of something going apparently wrong please tell me, either in Committee or elsewhere and I shall do my utmost to deal with the complaint. Some of the other aspects are, however, not quite so satisfactory. The separation of the Infectious Diseases Hospital from the Medical Officer of Health has undoubtedly had a most unfortunate effect. The Medical Officer of Health still remains the person in charge of the control of Infectious Diseases, but he has no control over where most of the cases are—that is, the Infectious Diseases Hospital. The outbreak of Smallpox in the early part of 1950 in Glasgow ' where the hospital in which the first case arose was, as elsewhere, not under the control of the Medical Officer of Health, emphasises this very serious defect in the National Health Service Act. Circular RHB(50)75 of the Ministry of Health appears to me to be no more than a pious hope that things will improve. I have received every possible co-operation from Dr. Stammers, the Medical Officer, and Miss Gordon, the matron of the hospital, and this has mitigated the disadvantage to a very large extent, but Miss Gordon has gone and what the future may hold I do not know.