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

  • Abergavenny (Wales). Borough Council.
Date:
1956
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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

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    1956 Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, Since the National Health Service Act came into operation in July, 1948, attention has been focussed on the amount of sickness and the rising cost of treatment. Much of this sickness is preventable hence the importance of preventive medicine and its associated problems. Preventive services are chiefly administered by Local Government Authorities and may be divided, broadly speaking into two groups — the personal and the environmental. The County Council is responsible for the personal health services. Abergavenny Borough Council as a Local Authority, is responsible for the administration of the environmental services. Since the office of the Medical Officer of Health is a mixed appointment, a close liaison between the two types of services is maintained. Environmental Hygiene is just as important today, as ever it was, if community health is to be maintained and improved. Bad housing with inadequate ventilation and overcrowding insanitary workplaces and offices, overcrowded and insanitary schools, over- flowing dustbins, inadequate methods of sewage disposal are a few examples of conditions which may well spread disease. The crowded house or school is a menace not only because of the risk of infection and accident, but also because of the frustration and misery which might easily impair both physical and mental health. Since the war, Abergavenny Borough Council is justifiably proud of its progress in the field of housing, and is going ahead successfully with its programme of Slum Clearance. The Tudor Street and Byefield Lane Slum Clearance Area is now nearing completion and alternative accommod- ation has been found for all the families involved, most of whom have already moved. The seven remaining families will take up their new residences shortly. Eighty-one properties in this area will then be demolished and the work of reconstruction begun. Modern houses and flats will be erected on the north side of Tudor Street only, so as to leave a clear view of Castle Meadows and the River Usk, with the Blorenge mountain beyond. Preliminary measures have also been
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