[Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough.

  • West Bromwich (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    inevitable, been the subject of a good deal of criticism. Some critics have pointed out that although labelled a “ Health ” Act it does in fact make little essential contribution to health, but rather concentrates on hospital care and the cure of disease rather than on its prevention. Others allege that the Act by dividing local medical and health functions into three compartments under three statutory bodies has created barriers between those engaged in the three sections, namely, the public health services, the general practitioner services and the hospital services. Still others point to the duplication and even triplication of functions and quote the example of infectious disease, including tuberculosis, where the responsibility for prevention remains with the local Health Committee but for treatment with the Regional Hospital Board. Midwifery is also freely cited as an example of a service which should be under the supervision of one authority but which at the present time is divided between three major parts of the health services, namely, the Health Department, the general practitioners and the hospitals. It would be idle to deny that there is not some substance in all of these criticisms and no doubt those who give voice to them are influenced by their own experience as obtained in the particular areas where they may happen to be working. It is, therefore, useful to ask oneself to what extent these criticisms apply to this particular area. It would be untrue to say that we have not experienced minor difficulties for these were to be expected during the inauguration of so far reaching changes, but so far as I am aware they have never assumed a major character and have responded to common sense adjustment. I am able to say that so far as my knowledge and experience goes locally, the services are working reasonably well. I have tried to think of the reason why this is so and in my opinion there are two main reasons for this satisfactory state of affairs. The first is the fact that in West Bromwich there is an exten¬ sive sharing of members on the different bodies concerned with the health services. That is to say, many members of the Health Committee are also members of both the Hospital Management Committee and the Executive Council ; the local medical practi¬ tioners are well represented on the Health Committee; the Medical Officer of Health is represented on the Local Medical Committee and is a member of the Hospital Management Com¬ mittee ; there is indeed a wholesale mixture and overlapping of committee members. More important even than this is the fact that many of the key positions, such as Chairmanships, are also jointly held. For instance, the Chairman of the Health Com¬ mittee, Alderman J. T. H. Davies, is also Vice-Chairman of the Hospital Management Committee and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Executive Council. The Vice-Chairman of the Health Committee, Alderman A. Green, is also Chairman of the Executive Council and Chairman of the Engineering Committee of the Hospital Management Committee. Councillor B. Parry, a member of the Health Committee and of the Hospital Management t>