[Report 1958] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter.

  • Exeter (England). City Council.
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1958] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/144
    It is disappointing that no further progress has yet been made with the proposed smoke control areas in the City : ob- jections have been lodged and the Minister has not yet held an enquiry. Up to the end of 1 958, progress towards the building of a new abattoir can only be described as very slight ; this is an urgent problem. In regard to slum clearance, the Minister con- firmed 13 Clearance Orders and 2 Compulsory Purchase Orders. 7 other Orders submitted during the year were outstanding at the end of 1958. Further progress was made in modernising the public conveniences throughout the City. Discussions with the Exeter and Mid-Devon Hospital Management Committee about the joint user of the hospital mortuary were continued ; if it can be arranged, this would be useful. The Decontamination Centre in the grounds of the Alice Vlieland Clinic was converted very skilfully by the City Architect and opened as a training centre for mentally subnormal young men and boys. My thanks are due to all members of my staff for their loyal] help and hard work during the year ; also to the chief officers' of the Council, the doctors in the City, the public and the press- for their continuing help. I thank the Council and, in particular, the Chairmen and Members of both Health Committees, for your encouragement and support throughout the year in our: efforts to improve the health of the City. Helping the people to a high standard of community health is not only a duty of a local authority, it is the primary duty. Salus Populi Suprema- Lex. The Health Department is the Council’s main, though not its only means to this end. We do well to remember another: Latin tag “ non est vivere sed valere vitae ” (not only to live but to i be worthy of life). Longevity alone is not enough, the full life, to the very end,l must be the objective : ultimately, it is the individual wills that make up the will of the community, that determine success or failure. The local health authority must not only try to make it possible to secure good health, it should try to make it seem: attractive and worth-while, even, on occasion, to the point of some sacrifice. That is a major purpose of our health education. I am, , Your obedient servant, n E. D. IRVINE.