| Administrative History | The origins of the Chester County Borough Health Department go back to 1872 in which year Chester was constituted an urban sanitary authority under the terms of the 1872 Public Health Act. A public health committee was appointed in the same year. The 1872 Public Health Act together with other sanitary legislation was repealed and consolidated in a new act in 1875 which remained the foundation of the law relating to public health until the 1936 Public Health Act which is the basis of the present law. Following the 1888 Local Government Act Chester became a county borough.
Chester Corporation was appointed an Urban Sanitary Authority by the Public Health Act of 1872 and a Public Health Committee was appointed to replace the former Sanitary Committee in 1873. Under the Canal Boats Act of 1877 40 and 41 Victoria c.60 Chester Corporation as an Urban Sanitary Authority became responsible for the registration of canal boats and the minutes of the Public Health Committee record the appointment of the first examiner of canal boats on 3 Oct. 1878.
Initially the public health services were mainly of an environmental nature, embracing such matters as refuse collection, drainage and water supply. The development of a wider concept of responsibility for the health of the people led to the establishment of personal health services such as the medical inspection and treatment of schoolchildren. With the establishment of a national health service after the Second World War this trend was accelerated leading to a rapid expansion of the responsibilities and functions of the Health Department.
The environmental health service provided by the Health Department included sanitation, smoke control, refuse collection, building regulation, inspection of slaughterhouses and food premises, and rodent control. The personal health services, mainly administered in accordance with the 1946 National Health Service Act included provision of ante and post natal clinics, supervision of midwives and health visitors, home nursing, family planning, vaccination and immunisation, and the provision of an ambulance service.
Following the 1973 National Health Service Reorganisation Act responsibility for personal health services in Chester was transferred to the Cheshire Area Health Authority, part of the new integrated administrative structure for the personal health services which came into operation on 1 April 1974. Environmental health services remained a local authority responsibility and are now (1976) administered by the Environmental Health Department of the Council of the City of Chester. |