[Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, East Sussex County Council.

  • East Sussex (England). County Council
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, East Sussex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/68 (page 2)
    Mr. Chairman, My Lords, 'Ladies and Cen-tlemen I have the honour to present the seventy-first Annual Report on the Health of the Administrative County of East Sussex. iS This tf the first report for which I am responsible and it is appropriate that I should at the outset, pay tribute to my predecessor, Dr. Frank Langford, who retired during the year. Dr. Langford was anpointed Deputy County Medical Officer of Health in 1940 and succeeded Dr. Clegg as County Medical Officer of Health in 1946. During my travels around the coun'ty I meet many people, all of whom refer warmly to their recollections of Dr. Langford. All speak very highly of his work and personal contribu- tions to the Health of the County. This year the report of the County Medical Officer and the report of the Principal School Medical Officer are being published as one volume. They need to be read together if one is to gain a complete picture of the health of the county. The Principal Dental Officer's report illustrates this point. This describes the enormous amount of dental disease amongst our school children. This dental disease is not peculiar to children, but heralds poor dental health in adult life and leads to the early need for dentures. The real roots of this problem lie in the attitude of the whole community to dental disease. We neglect our responsibility for the dental hygiene of our children and do little to improve the quality of their diet. This Includes supplying them with an adequate Intake of fluoride. Unfortunately the water siipplies in the county are deficient in this substance, and unless we make good this deficiency we are condemning our children, and their children to a great deal of unnecessary pain and misery, and future generations of adults to a continuance of the present unsatisfactory dental conditions. The report tells its own story of the work done in the past year and outlines the statistics of life and death in the County. I wish, however, not to dwell on the past but to look forward - perhaps a natural desire when writing one's first' report. I sometimes fee] that in the local health authority service we can become so taken up with administering services that we lose sight of the prime ob^ject of most of these services: the prevention of desease. For example, we spend a great deal of time, energy and money on infant welfare clinics. The cause for which they were founded has been won, and we should ask ourselves whether these resources could not be better employed on other things. I would like to see the family doctor fulfilling his role as doctor to the family and carrying out the medical aspects of this work for the children on his list. The health visitor should assist him in this, and then be free to organise the health education for the whole family. There is a far greater need for preventive services of this kind for the elderly. Health education in the county is left largely to the opportunism of the health visitors and any other person who might be interested. If we are to prevent disease, it must be developed on a more organised scale. We are now beginning to tackle the problem of cancer and smoking - and this is another problem that cannot be solved simply by action in the schools, although a start should be made there. Another 297 county residents died of cancer of the lung in 1965 - an increase of 64 over 1964. Venereal disease, drug taking, accidents in the home, food hygiene - these and many other matters demand positive health education methods. During the year a start was made with the provision of a screening service for cancer of the cervix. The results to date illustrate the 'iceberg' of disease. Whilst a cancerous or precancerous condition has been discovered in a few cases only, a large number of other conditions have been found. None of these was sufficient in itself to lead the patient to consult her doctor but at the same time meant that the woman concerned was enjoying less than the best of health. I am sure that other new techniques will enable us to develop screening methods for many other diseases. This is still, however, for the future as much research is still required. Towards the end of the year some most interesting discussions were taking place with general practitioners, one result of which may be the establishment of health centres in the county. I feel that health centres are a vital ingredient missing from the National Health Service and am delighted that this authority is so ready to consider these proposals. I must draw attention to the continuing development of the mental health service. Much has been achieved, and the opening of the Belgrave Adult Training Centre at Portslade is a particular landmark. This is another area where Health Authority Services and School Health Services meet. The smooth transfer of children on a two way basis between Training Centre and School with the minim\im of formality is extremely important to the child and his parent. Dr. Waugh draws attention to the value of a school medical officer maintaining close contact with the schools. This highlights a defect in the system of routine Inspections whereby the medical officer visits the school only once a year to carry these out. There is much to be said for the adoption of a selective medical inspec- tion programme requiring, as it does, a much closer identification of the doctor with the school. This scheme will need to be looked at in the future together with the possibility of the school entry examination being carried out prior to school entry through the child welfare services, thus giving the schools prior notice of any health problems of school entrants.