[Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Maidstone U.D.C. / Borough.

  • Maidstone (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Maidstone U.D.C. / Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    will always be part ol' our social system however firmly the “ Welfare State ” becomes established, lies open in the pro¬ vision of suitable and convenient dwellings for liie solitary and incapacitated old folk. Tuberculosis and Chest Clinic. This is now part of the National Health Service and the Chest Physician for the area is equipped with complete facilities for the investigation of suspected cases, including X-ray examinations. Recent ad¬ vances in the chemo-therapy of tuberculosis have given results by clinic treatment which are comparable with those only formerly obtainable in sanatoria and the prospect of cure in early cases is better than ever before but tuberculosis is a preventable disease and improved, housing and better living standards will be the most effective weapons in the war against this disease. Venereal Disease. The Clinic at the West Kent Hospital continues to give good service and the Health Committee has co-operated in the publicity needed to make known the facilities for diagnosis and treatment which arc available. Skin Diseases. The services of a Consultant Dermatolo¬ gist are available at the West Kent Hospital. Epileptics and Spastics. i cannot give any accurate estimate of the incidence of epilepsy and cerebral palsy in the Borough: treatment and specialist advice is obtainable through the hospital service and the local branch of the National Spas¬ tics Association is working to encourage and assist re-habilita- tion measures for these handicapped members of the com¬ munity. Child Life Protection. The work of the N.S.P.C.C. in Maidstone has, as in former years, been continued with close co-operation with the County Health Department and in particular the Health Visitors, and the Borough Health Depart¬ ment. Child neglect and ill-treatment are not faults to which British parents are naturally prone: far more often these are symptoms of family unhappiness and despair. The Inspector of the N.S.P.C.C. slated to me in the past year his conviction that the family is the important unit and that most of the cases of child neglect can be saved if the family, as a unit can be kept together and rescued from shipwreck, and with this view I am in agreement. The shortage of houses is a factor in the break¬ up of some marriages and in the causation of child neglect,