| AdminHistory | The Public Health and Maternity and Child Welfare Committee (see BCC/1/BM) was renamed the Health Committee in April 1947. It took on all the duties of the old committee; however, in many ways it was a transitional committee, as it would assist in the handing over of a number of its functions to the newly formed National Health Service in July 1948. Indeed, the committee knew this from its appointment in April 1947. The committee comprised eighteen members, excluding the Lord Mayor.
On its appointment, the committee was responsible for the administration of the Corporation Hospitals, Tuberculosis Centre, Sanatoria, Maternity, Nursing and Convalescent Homes and the Heath and Welfare Centres. The committee also inspected ‘nuisances’, such as smoke emissions, noise, poor and overcrowded housing, analysed foodstuffs and the milk supply to ensure sufficient quality and it being free from harmful bacteria. The committee also monitored infectious diseases and vaccination programmes, health visitors, infant welfare and fostering.
The National Health Act of 1946 established a state health service with free medical, dental and optical care for all. General practitioners (also known as GPs or family doctors) were responsible for primary care, and 3500 hospitals were taken over from existing organisations and local authorities. Therefore, the National Health Service (NHS) took over the hospitals (including mental hospitals) and infirmaries from July 1948.
Further, after July 1948, the Fire Brigade took over the ambulance service, although the Health Committee was consulted. Meanwhile, the new Children’s Committee (see BCC/1/CT) was to provide and administer residential homes for children and residential nurseries, including Oaklands, Pype Hayes and Wassell Grove. This committee also was responsible for the boarding out of children (from babies to 18 years of age) without homes of their own and to provide after-care. Also, as a result of the Adoption of Children Act of 1949, the major responsibility for adoption came to the committee from 1 July 1950. The functions of the new Welfare Committee were to manage, administer and provide regular inspection of homes for the aged and infirm (see BCC/1/CU).
The Health Committee retained what would today be called environmental health, in that it continued to undertake the inspection of foodstuffs, milk water, as well as monitoring smoke emissions, housing conditions, lodging houses and noise pollution. The Health Committee was involved in the framing of health bye-laws, and carried out much of the registration required through national policy, such as the registering of nurses, private nursing homes and childcare workers.
The Health Committee, in many ways, acted as a local support body to the National Health Service. The committee continued to organise health visitors and home nursing, welfare clinics, assist with vaccination programmes, such as those of tuberculosis and polio. The committee also took a far more proactive view to health education, and also had the responsibility for day-care centres and after-care centres for general and mental health patients.
By 1974, which is the date to which Birmingham City Archives holds records for this committee, the supportive and environmental health functions remained unchanged, excepting only the change in, or additional, environmental health laws, both central and local. One example is the Clean Air Act of 1956, which was passed in response to the London Smog Disaster of 1952. The Act aimed to control domestic sources of smoke pollution by introducing smokeless zones. In these areas, smokeless fuels had to be burnt. |