[Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Canterbury Borough / City & County.

  • Canterbury (England). City & County Council.
Date:
1955
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Canterbury Borough / City & County. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/54 (page 1)
    14 Dane John, Canterbury. 1956. To the Mayor, Alderman and Councillors of the City of Canterbury. I have the honour to present my Annual Report covering the year 1955. It is laid out in the following order. It l^egiiis with ihe social and statistical data, and detail of mortality and infec- tious disease morbidity. The second section, page 8, is con- cerned with the local health services provided within the frame- work of the national health services. Then follows on page 26, the report of the Chief Sanitary Inspector and finally on page 64, my report as Principal School Medical Officer which includes the report of the Child Guidance Clinic. It will l>e readih appreciated that the matter reported repre- sents the work of professional and technical officers on your staff, amongst whom there are doctors, nurses, sanitary inspectors, social workers and mental health officers, but it must not be for- gotten that this work could not run smoothly and would lose much of its impact without the lay assistance of the clerical staff who warrant our thanks for their good services in a wide span of duties, which include many opportunities for the exercise of humanity, opportunities which have uot been allowed to pass. During 1955 we l>egan B.C.G. vaccination against tubercu- losis for the 16-year-old age grouj) of school children. This step was taken to provide a basal defence against the disease for those who had not already achieved it in the more dangerous way of contact with infection, and to i)rovide this defence prior to emer- gence from school, years into the wider field of contact of adult employment. It is satisfying to report that 80% of parents agreed to have their children tested and protected. In common with all other authorities our slum clearance scheme was presented in outline to be developed over five years. Unfit houses would have been cleared away long since if the job were an easy one, but it is made more complex today by the dis- jiroportion between rental and the cost of maintenance and repair with rents fixed on out of date values. We have lK*en much concerned with road accidents in recent years and dejdore the casualties of the lust for speed. But we have tended to forget the large number of casualties from accidents in the home, where conditions have im])roved and the behaviour hazards have remained much the same as they have been through generations of growing uj). The teaching of jirevention of home accidents is part of the routine of the health visitor and of other social workers. It is a good field for the voluntary aid societies,