[Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, Bedford Borough.

  • Bedford Borough Council
Date:
1964
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, Bedford Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/112 (page 4)
    Telephone No: Bedford 67422 PUBLIC HEALTH DEI^ARTMENT. TOWN HALL, BEDFORD. JUNE 1965. To: HIS WORSHIP THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS OF THE BOROUGH OF BEDFORD. Ladies and Gentlemen, It is one of the duties of the Medical Officer of health to produce an Annual Report on the health of his area and to give particular items of information requested by the Ministry of Health. The report can, however, serve other purposes in that it presents a picture of the existing services and may have some value in health education by drawing the attention of the community to local problems. My report has always been written with this very much in mind in the hope that some: of the information given would get a wider circulation. Use has been' made of the report by the local press and students in the area have: utilised it for studies of the health services. It has been my hope: that it would tend to create the right climate of opinion towards the; the development now going on in the field of public health. The National Health Service as originally conceived, with its- three divisions of hospital, general practitioners and local authority services, has been recognised by many to be faulty. However, the new- thinking, based on research going on in the universities, has not yet been able to influence practice in the field to any great extent at present. What is so badly needed is operational research to determine: the best forms amongst the ideas at present being put forward. It must, however, be recognised that the new ideas on a scientific approach aic perhaps often less popular than modern scientific evaluation and 1 organisation has been able to management and labour] Methods such ass time and motion study, organisation and method studies, automation and computers, are usually received with great suspicion and anxiety by those faced with these new techniques. EPIDEMIC DISEASE During the year no serious problems arose in the field of; - epidemic disease, though it is of great interest that at the Inquiry set : up to investigate the typhoid epidemic at Aberdeen they reviewed the J whole position with regard to the outbreaks of typhoid fever in this j country in respect of those at Bedford, Harlow and South Shields, and i considered evidence given in support ot the contention that a number ( of other outbreaks of typhoid fever were very probably caused by corned .i beef. Our small outbreak preceded that in Aberdeen. Early on in the !l outbreak I came to the conclusion that corned beef was the source and (i