[Report 1944] / Medical Officer of Health, Battle R.D.C.

Battle (England). Rural District Council.

Date:: 1944

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1944] / Medical Officer of Health, Battle R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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t - 2 - Shortage of staff still hampered the work of the Public Health Department. Attempts to obtain the release of Mr. ¥, T. Dunford had not succeeded before the end of the year. Lack of water was st.ill a matter for concern. Of 33 water samples 23 were unsatisfactory. Scabies remained a nuisance but probably rather less than in ]943* Insulin, in accordance with Circular 2734 of the Ministry of Health, was supplied to three people. The most marked differences between the numbers of cases of disease notified in 1943 and 1944 are, measles, 544 in 1943; 49 in 1944'and whooping cough, 5 in 1943; 122 in 19'i4. In 1943 there were four cases of diphtheria, in 1944 only two. Neither patient had been immunised. Diphtheria Immunization, from a medical point of view, is the most important activity of the Public Health Department. It is of national as well as of local importance. A dept of gratitude is owed to the heft, Deputy M.O.H., Col. J. L. H. Sawyer, M.D. M.R.C.P., who hd& been indefatigable in holding clinics throughout the year. These Clinics are arranged from the Council offices and not the clinics only but the sorting,.grouping and tabulating the names* ages and results. All this entails a great deal of very careful work and I cannot pay too high a tribute to Miss Whatley, the Clerk of the Public Health and Surveyor’s Department and to her assistant Miss Hearnshaw for their indefatigable accuracy. But however good the staff work the euccess of the Clinics depends largely on the Nurses who busy as they were before immunization began have willingly accepted a large addition to their duties. Nor must the co-operation of Head*Teachers be forgotten. Though the Clinics give work and hinder their ordinary exacting routine they have always been helpful. Nevertheless the labours of all these would be in vain but for the parents. They know the danger of diphtheria - it is not, like that of smallpox, forgotten - and most of them have the good sense to grasp that they are being offered a real protection for their children. To thank by name or office all that have helped in the work this report records and in its compilation would make it too long, but I must as last year, note my gratitude to Mr. R. a. Lusty, the Acting Clerk to the Rural District Council, who though always busy has always been cordially helpful. Lastly it is right to record with regret the death, while this report was compiling of Mr. a. L. Harris, Senior Sanitary Inspector and Surveyor. He was so quietly competent that it was easy to overlook how hard and accurately he worked.