[Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City.

  • Edinburgh (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/170 (page 9)
    Environmental Health Services (p. 93) In his presidential address to the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health in 1966, Lord Cohen directed attention to two lessons to be learned from the recent past which should be borne in mind in tackling the health problems of the future. The first is that the cost of health is never to be measured in terms solely of hospital costs, of medical and nursing staffs' fees or salaries, and of drug bills. We must not overlook that expenditure on housing, on slum clearance, on education, on transport, and on many other services, may have greater benefits for health than expenditure on conventional forms of health care. Secondly, we must never forget that the health of the people is not a concern of doctors and medical workers alone, it calls for the labours of scientists and engineers, of planners, of administrators, of politicians, and many others, and only when all health-promoting agencies receive adequate support and communicate freely with one another, so that advances in one field of knowledge can be applied without undue delay to others, will we be within reach of our aim of achieving the highest potential standards of health for all our people. In 1974, for the first time in the history of this country, we will have a united health service with responsibility for the health of the people, but this challenge can only be tackled by a partnership between the medical, nursing and administrative staff of the Health Boards and their colleagues in local government. It will be essential for our future community medicine specialists to maintain the friendly and mutually rewarding ties which exist at present between everyone associated with the local authority environmental health services. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Those friends thou hast and their adoption tried. Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel. Shakespeare It is a pleasure to acknowledge the support and encouragement which the department has received from the members of the Health Committee and the chief officers of the corporation throughout the year. As much of my time has been taken up with national committees and working parties, I am parti- cularly indebted to Dr. Craik, Mr Campbell and Mr Barrie, who have been responsible for the management of the department and for controlling and guiding its affairs. They have most successfully operated an executive group system of administration and have consulted the nursing, dental and other senior officers whenever necessary. This will be the last Annual Report by a medical officer of health of the city, and I would like to end by thanking all members of staff for their loyal help and support. Throughout 110 years of history the successful partnership of many talents within the Health department confirms the words of Austin Freeman; The destiny of the race will be determined not by the wealth of accumulated knowledge, but by the quality of the individuals of which the race is composed. I have the honour to be, my Lord Provost, Ladies and Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, J. L. GILLORAN, M.R.C.P.(Edin.), F.F.C.M., D.P.H. Medical Officer of Health