[Report 1971] / Medical Officer of Health, Hastings County Borough.

  • Hastings (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1971
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1971] / Medical Officer of Health, Hastings County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/108 (page 4)
    Following the “Peel” report on midwifery organization, discussions were opened at officer level to look at the midwifery needs of the town and at the possibility of integrating hospital and domiciliary midwifery into one service, based on the Buchanan Hospital. In the event, it is now unlikely that any such integration will be able to be effected before April 1974? when the reorganization of the whole national health service will bring it about willy-nilly: it therefore remains a forward-planning priority. An increasing proportion of time has to be given to keeping abreast of all the papers, reports and management structure documents concerning both local government and national health service reorganization and to attending the ever multiplying number of committees and working groups set up to preplan the new services. Time until the appointed day is so short with the vastness and complexity of these reorganizations in mind that a mounting crescendo of such demand is inevitable. Many will share my sincere hope that, at the end of the day, these vast upheavals conceived in the current political “supermarket” type of thinking, will eventually result in improved services to the patient and citizen. After discussions with the St. John Ambulance Brigade, who had operated the Ambulance Service for the County Borough on an agency basis since its formation in 1948, the agreement between them, the County Borough and the County Council was terminated in October and the service became directly administered by the Corporation. In the body of this report I have paid what I consider to be deserved tribute to the men, and their wives, who over ihe years did so much for the people of the town and I offer my most sincere thanks to them for their friendly and courteous collaboration over the years. Although no longer concerned with running the professional ambulance service, St. John as a voluntary body continues to have an important part to play in the affairs of the community and we all wish them well in their future work. The service carried a record number of patients in 1971, 68,912 for the County Borough alone: this represents an increase of 27% over the previous year, and the major part of the increase due to “sitting cases”. I am pleased to say, however, that the mileage covered in dealing with these cases was only 14% up on the previous year, a tribute to the administrative efficiency of Mr. Walker and his staff. Increasing attention is being given by the public to the many and varied forms of environmental pollution and in this respect Hastings is perhaps fortun¬ ately situated, but all forms of pollution are man made and eternal vigilance is required. Noise causes a tew but often difficult problems, smoke occasionally. There was a considerable increase in complaints from the public in relation to foodstuffs, and as always a large proportion are due to faulty rotation of stocks. As the synopsis of analysts’ reports shows, there is still too frequently undisclosed preservative where it should not be, and lack of legal standards for some com¬ modities makes reasonable control difficult. The number of applications for general improvement grants maintained the high level of the previous year, the total approved for these being j£i57>000* This response to the much wider basis on which grants can be made under the 1969 Housing Act is resulting not only in the rescue and improvement of decaying or inadequate properties, but by converting some of the larger houses into self-contained flats with all the necessary amenities is increasing the number of accommodation units available in the town. Prospects for the renovation of the Old Town improved markedly during the year, and the long impasse seems now to be ended. The Tackleway-AU Saints