The medical profession has—and should have—a role in acting on the health effects of poor housing

In Editor’s Choice, Dobson asks why it’s fallen to the medical community to act on the detrimental health effects of poor housing.1Throughout most of the past century it did fall to the medical profession to act on the health effects of poor housing.2 For example, my father, a single handed GP, was also the medical officer of health for Caerleon, an urban district council in Monmouthshire. He worked with two councillors to ensure the health of the community in the home, school, and workplace. Annual reports from medical officers of health improved local housing and influenced housing policy.Sadly, public health has been greatly run down and centralised in this century. Medical officers of health no longer exist and GPs rarely visit homes. Taking a social history was one of the first things I learnt in medical school. There is, and should be, a role for the medical profession in acting…
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