[Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, Abingdon and Faringdon Districts Joint Public Health Committee (Abingdon Borough, Abingdon R.D.C., Faringdon R.D.C.).

  • Abingdon and Faringdon Districts. Joint Public Health Committee.
Date:
1949
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Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, Abingdon and Faringdon Districts Joint Public Health Committee (Abingdon Borough, Abingdon R.D.C., Faringdon R.D.C.). Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    TO THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE ABINGDON & FARINGDON DISTRICTS JOINT HEALTH COMMITTEE Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for the year 1949. I took up my duties in this area in March, 1949. During the pre- ceding 21 months these duties had been carried out by either Dr. Costobadie from Newbury, or Dr. Baird from Reading, each of whom were busy enough with their other duties. Difficulties aris- ing from the extreme unsuitability of the existing office premises in Stert Street were soon increased by the promotion and departure of the experienced clerk. In the Autumn through the great kind- ness of Mr. Nicholson, Town Clerk of Abingdon, and with a gracious welcome from the Borough Council and its officers we moved our office to the Abbey House, Abingdon, on 1st November. One of the first tasks I set myself after arrival was to reduce the amount of unnecessary filling up of forms, record keeping and duplication of work which I found in existence. By the end of 1949 I had reduced the number of books used by Practitioners for notifying infectious diseases from 6, 12 or even more to one single book, which embraced all those previously in use as well as a new form for notifying poliomyelitis ordained by the Ministry of Health in December, 1949. I discontinued the keeping of records of all notified infectious diseases in each Sanitary Inspector’s office. By arranging for all these notifications to be sent direct to my office, the delay, extra work and double record keeping in each office that had been the practice in the past, was eliminated. A certain amount of visiting by Sanitary Inspectors of the houses where minor children’s infections had occurred, with its attendant questioning of the mother and filling up of a detailed form, was ajso stopped with full agreement of all concerned as to its need- lessness. A further practice in these cases, that has persisted in many areas long after its value has been scientifically disproved, is the ‘disinfection’ of rooms or houses after the occurrence of a case. This we have mostly discontinued, except for tuberculosis which remains the one important and common disease in which disin- fection is clearly worthwhile. The year 1949 was in most respects a healthy year, more healthy than 1948 and much more healthy than 1938. The Summary tables in the earlier part of the report show in almost all cases rates better