Page 28 - Smallwood Hospital

Redditch Heritage Smallwood Hospital

Chapter 3 PUBLIC HEALTH IN REDDITCH 1873-

1880

The role of the Medical Officer

Florence Nightingale was aware of the shortcomings of the system of Medical Officers of
Health. She described the position as ‘a busy man with a private practice covering a very
large area, who earns a pittance for doing a most important public duty’. 61

The Medical Officers who were responsible for identifying and eliminating the worst
sanitary practices were usually poorly paid, and held in low esteem. Only in 1872 was it
made compulsory for local authorities to employ a Medical Officer, and it was a further
three years before it was specified that they had to be medically qualified. As late as 1899
the Lancet drew attention to the insecurity felt by many Medical Officers of Health:

It is not an uncommon thing for a Medical Officer, while endeavouring to have some
insanitary property put in a proper state of repair, to find that a quantity of it is owned by a
member of the sanitary authority - i.e. by one of his masters, by one of the men who have
absolute power to discharge him neck and crop. 62

The Redditch Local Board appointed Herbert Page as the Medical Officer of Health for
63
Redditch in 1873, and re-elected him in 1874. Some of the problems Mr. Page encountered
are evident in the following accounts of the Redditch Local Board. In 1874 he examined
samples of water handed to him by the Inspector of Nuisances, and found that they contained
organic matter and were utterly unfit for use. Mr. Page suggested that means should be
adopted for improving the town’s supply of water. 64

The Local Government Board extended the boundary of the Redditch Local Board’s district
th
in 1875. The extension of the boundary came into force on the 29 of September, 1875, and
included part of the parish of Ipsley, part of the township of Redditch, and the consolidated
chapelry of Headless Cross. The number of members of the Redditch Local Board increased
from nine to twelve, and provision was made for the retirement of a third of the number each
65
year, so that the annual election would be for four members instead three. In October 1875
the Worcester Journal noted that Local Board members included Mr. Stinton (Chairman), and
Messrs. Rickets, Gibbs, Mogg, Milward, Hodges, and Booker. 66

Sewerage and waterworks

Now the Board’s district been extended it was time to consider the sewerage and waterworks.
The lack of sewers had continued to be a problem. Letters were received from property

61
Halliday, S. (2007) The Great Filth: The War Against Disease in Victorian England. Stroud, Sutton
Publishing.
62
Lancet, 23 December 1899, cited in Halliday, S. (2007) The Great Filth: The War Against Disease in
Victorian England. Stroud, Sutton Publishing.
63
Worcester Journal, 11 April 1874.
64
Worcester Journal, 9 May 1874.

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