Dr. R.J. Reece's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the Williton Rural District, with special reference to the appointment of medical officer of health.

  • Reece, Richard James, 1862-1924.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. R.J. Reece's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the Williton Rural District, with special reference to the appointment of medical officer of health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    3/20
    2 Dr. R. J. Reece’s Report to the Local Govern- ment Board on the Sanitary Circumstances and Administration of the Williton Rural District, with Special Reference to the Appointment of Medical Officer of Health. Arthur Newsholme, Medical Officer, July 30th, 1910. For purposes of public health administration the Williton Rural District is divided into an eastern and a western division, to each of which a medical officer of health is appointed. For many years past the Local Government Board, when a vacancy has occurred in either of these two appointments, have informed the district council that they regard the appointment of more than one medical officer of health in a rural district as undesirable in the interests of sanitary administration; that experience has shown that divided counsel from such officers is a real bar to progress in sanitary matters ; that the attempt to obtain consistency in sanitary administration with the aid of more than one responsible adviser in one department has almost invariably proved a failure ; and that in relation to the duties of the medical officer of health, the attend- ance at the meetings of the district council for affording assistance and advice, the supervision of the work of the inspector of nuisances, etc., the advantages of one appointment as compared with several are obvious. To communications of this sort the rural council has replied referring to the physical circumstances of its district, and stating that the policy of the council is to select a medical practitioner whose private practice extends over the greater part of the western division of the district as the medical officer of health for that division, and to adopt a similar course with reference to the eastern division; that if one medical practitioner were appointed medical officer of health for both divisions he would be going over only a comparatively small portion of the ground in tbe course of his private practice, and he would have to make many long special journeys; and that the appointment of one medical officer of health for the whole district would result in considerably increased expense, and a decrease in efficiency. The council further states that anyone acquainted with the local topography would not suggest the appointment of one medical officer of health for the whole district. When in December, 1909, the clerk of the council informed the Board that the medical officer of health for the western division of the district had resigned, and the council proposed to appoint a medical officer of health for this division and maintained the opinion it had previously expressed to the Board concerning the appointment of two medical officers of health for the whole district. No. 36. (16603—21.) Wt. 6685—579. 500. 8/10. D & S.