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EIGHTH ANNUAL
ANNUAL REPORT.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

SIR JOHN GILMOUR, BART., D.S.O., M.P.,
PRESIDENT OF THE SCOTTISH BOARD OF HEALTH.

SCOTTISH BOARD OF HEALTH,
EDINBURGH, April, 1927.

SIR,

We have the honour to submit our Report for the year 1926. The year was exceptional on account of two events: the long stoppage in the coal-mining industry, and the brief disorganisation due to the general strike. But throughout this difficult time, when the Board were faced daily with fresh points of detailed administration, nothing was more striking than the numerous manifestations of friendly co-operation among the local authorities themselves and the various industries directly or indirectly affected. At the many discussions, consultations and deputations, official and non-official, flowing from the disturbed conditions, the Board had abundant opportunity of maintaining the friendly personal intercourse that has always been a feature of the Scottish central departments. It is only right to record our view that the Scottish system of local government gave many proofs of its vitality and adaptivity to exceptional emergencies.

The stoppage in the coal-mining industry had several developments of interest and gravity. The payment of poor relief to the families of able-bodied miners gave rise to legal action in the Court of Session. The judgment given was to the effect that, in the case of able-bodied men for whom work was available, relief could not legally be given out of the poor rates, either under the Poor Law Act of 1845 or under the Act of 1921, for the men themselves or for their dependants living in family with them. Accordingly Accordingly the relief given to the destitute dependants of miners during the dispute was illegal. judgment was given, however, without prejudice to our power to refrain from surcharging the responsible parish councillors. Since then the Government have taken steps to validate the payments made by parish councils, and are providing out of State funds a sum of approximately £260,000 to be paid as a

This

grant of 40 per cent. of the expenditure incurred by parish councils in providing the relief.

A further complication was the sudden increase, immediately after the general strike and the mining dispute began, in the cases, certified by medical practitioners, of incapacity for employment among insured persons. This increase was confined to industrial areas, and there was no epidemic or any other exceptional sickness. During the months June to December, 1926, there were more than four times as many male cases referred to the district medical officers as there had been in the corresponding months of 1925.

In several coal-mining areas school children were fed at school by the education authorities, and the teachers in general observed that the health and well-being of the children were fully maintained.

Apart, however, from the period of exceptional pressure, the year was marked by many evidences of the progressive adjustments due to the increasing duties of local authorities.

The co-operation of public health and poor law authorities on the one hand, and of those authorities and voluntary bodies on the other, is illustrated in several parts of the Report, particularly in the measures taken by the City of Aberdeen to utilise the hospital accommodation provided by the parish council, and in the decision of the parish council of Glasgow to throw a large section of Stobhill Hospital open for the reception of cases of encephalitis lethargica in its late stages. The Rating Act which comes into operation on 15th May, 1927, will simplify the rating system of local authorities in Scotland, and will ultimately result in a saving in the cost of collecting rates. The question of mutual aid on the part of public health local authorities and of the directing bodies of the voluntary hospitals is referred to in chapter VIII, which shews how in one or two places a beginning has been made with the system of co-operation contemplated by the Committee on Hospitals, presided over by Lord Mackenzie. These measures, varying in kind and in degree, are only a sample of the constant effort that is being made towards simplification of administration and the economical use of existing resources.

The Pensions Scheme for widows, orphans and aged persons, a scheme which is based on contributions from employees, employers and the State, was successfully inaugurated in the early days of the year. The new developments under the scheme are recorded in a special chapter.

Following the line of the last two Annual Reports, we have thought it advisable to give a particular account of several

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