[Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council.

  • Cumberland (England). County Council.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/294 (page 11)
    of professional information and an easy reference from and to the hospital of information and action to the patient’s or client’s benefit. 1 am now less unhappy about the possibility that the ambul- ance service in this wide ranging county should be transferred to the control of the Regional Hospital Board—the major user. For some five years now the Cumberland Health Committee have been interested in a joint ambulance committee to run a combined service for the Special Area. Obvious reaction from this type of thought is that regional control will be more effective and efficient in a situation where the major user is the hospital. An attempt to improve the clerical procedure for schemes of immunisation by data processing through the computer in the County Treasurer’s department has, unfortunately, had to be shelved on financial grounds. This is a great pity but it is hoped the authority will be able to meet the relatively small extra cost in order to modernise this procedure for the efficient prevention of the common infectious diseases of yesterday. I 1 have been impressed during the year by increasing difficulty ' in attracting into mixed appointments suitably qualified doctors to I undertake district council public health work, together with duties ’ in the county health and welfare service. There would seem to me to be some urgent need for some form of reorganisation in the i medical staff structure of health and welfare departments, and I ; think I have already written enough to indicate that this is just 1 part of a general pattern of re-examination of the needs of I particular groups of staff. At the same time I feel that this is every reason why we ' should go ahead to examine staff needs in respect of the next two i decades so that the staff establishment may be evolved which is in k keeping with the needs to come rather than the needs of the past ■ situation. On no account must we plan for the needs of to- t morrow with the establishment of yesterday. Changes in personnel constantly occur but the year has seen l the death of the Southern Area Medical Officer, Dr. J. N. Dobson, ' whose pioneer work in public health in that area and whose deep