PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT: ORGANISATIONAL AND GENERAL

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: LCC/PH/GEN
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT: ORGANISATIONAL AND GENERAL
Date(s)	: 1867-1967
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 11.23 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: LCC | London County Council x London County Council

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The London County Council assumed responsibility for the general hospitals formerly maintained by the Boards of Guardians and the Special hospitals formerly maintained by the Metropolitan Asylums Board with effect from 1 April 1930. These hospitals needed much work to modernise, equip and staff them adequately. The Council made great improvements in hospital accommodation and staffing standards. The nursing service had been improved, medical schools established, and a laboratory service built up. These functions were transferred to the Regional Hospitals Boards and Hospital Management Committees under the National Health Service Acts with effect from 5 July 1948. The Council assisted by providing services of supply, engineering and finance for several months after the transfer, until Council officers could be absorbed into the new organisation.

There was also a transfer from the City and the boroughs to the London County Council of health services including maternity and child welfare, health visiting, home help, vaccination and immunisation, and the care of those with tuberculosis. The Council took over 4,843 lay and professional staff, 70 freehold premises, and 252 tenancy arrangements, as well as adding new services such as home nursing, the provision of health centres and the expansion of the ambulance service. The County was divided into nine divisions, each with a divisional health committee, a divisional medical officer, a nursing officer and an administrative officer.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the London County Council Public Health Department relating to organisational and general matters, 1867-1967, including copies of relevant Parliamentary legislation; reports on investigations by Council officials; legal cases; papers relating to the introduction of the National Health Service; papers relating to the construction and maintenance of buildings run by the Public Health department; conference and committee papers; statistics; papers relating to various public health issues including refuse disposal, drainage and sewers, air pollution, water supply, water quality and slum clearance. Reports and printed papers relating to public health, including booklets, posters and pamphlets produced by the LCC to advertise and explain their health services.

Papers of Sir Allen Daley (Principal Medical Officer, 1929-1938; Deputy Medical Officer of Health, 1938-1939 and Medical Officer of Health, 1939-1952), consisting of a collection of extracts from medical and other journals, 1912-1938. Papers of Dr J. Letitia D Fairfield, CBE, a Medical Officer and, later, Senior Medical Officer in the Public Health Department, 1911-1948, consisting of memoranda and correspondence arising in the course of her duties, articles written by her and other articles from medical and other journals on subjects of interest in connection with her duties.

Also collection of 360 files relating to the treatment of tuberculosis by the General Public Health Department of the London County Council, 1904-1950. Many of the files are concerned with particular hospitals and sanatoria in England, which specialised in the treatment and rehabilitation of tuberculous patients. The files contain descriptions of the sanatoria, reports of their management, correspondence, financial accounts and details of particular cases. These details include the welfare of patients, as well as arrangements for their travelling expenses. The files also relate to the provision of TB administration in war time, the treatment of service men and their families, and also of refugees. The files contain information relating to the treatment of diseases associated with TB, including lupus, syphilis, silicosis and asbestosis, osteomyetitis and poliomyelitis. Progress in the treatment of TB can be traced in the files relating to the value of treatment in Switzerland, and in the files concerned with Open Air Schools. Emphasis is also placed on the importance of mass radiography as an aid towards the detection of TB at an early stage, and file 360 contains a number of such X-Ray negatives.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

LCC/PH/GEN/01: General; LCC/PH/GEN/02: Reports and printed papers; LCC/PH/GEN/03: Personal papers; LCC/PH/GEN/04: Treatment of TB.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City of London

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its parent body, the London County Council.

Allied Materials

Related material:

See also LCC/CL/PH: CLerks Department files relating to Public Health.

Publication note:

For further information on the history of the LCC please see Achievement: A Short History of the London County Council by W Eric Jackson (1965), LMA Library reference 18.0 1965, The London County Council 1938, LMA Library reference 18.7 SER 4, and The Youngest County: A description of London as a county and its public services, 1951, LMA Library reference 18.0 1951.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
April to June 2009