Promoting the new public health in Mersey

Abstract

WHEN Liverpool Town Council appointed William Henry Duncan as the first Medical Officer of Health in 1847, the appointment was not made out of any particular sense of vision. Rather, housing and environmental conditions were so bad that urgent action appeared to be necessary. Duncan had been the one physician locally with the necessary insight into the living conditions of his patients, and the necessary motivation to bring the situation to public attention1.2. The liberal reforms that were under way in response to the harsh effects of the industrial revolution meant that he was in the right place at the right time with pertinent things to say, and as a result he was listened to. As with Duncan, so with present-day health promoters, if only they are prepared to take their opportunities and involve themselves with what is now becoming well established — the new public health.