A FINE APPOINTMENT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 144, 21 June 1930, Page 13

A FINE APPOINTMENT

SALARY OF £1500 A YEAR

A great triumph scored recently by Dr. Julia Browne, who, in spite of the fact that she had to be judged with. 30 male applicants, was appointed borough medical officer for Stepney, and is thus the first woman to become a medical officer of health in London. She is to have a salary of £1500 a year, and is in charge of the public health department of a borough which has a population of nearly a quarter of a million. She already knows Stepney v-ery well, as she has been assistant medical officer there for nearly ten years. During all this time, she says, she has never found any prejudice against her as a woman, neither among her colleagues nor among her patients. Stepney, has always been a very progressive place. It was,, for one thing, the first London borough to appoint a woman health visitor. That was 25 years ago, and at that time the infant mortality of Stepney was 170 a thousand; now it is about 70 a thousand, and' Dr. Browne hopes to bring it still lower. Until her appointment most of Dr. Browne's work was concerned with maternity and child welfare, but now her duties will be very much enlarged. Sho has a whole public health department to look after, and in. addition sho controls three tuberculosis dispensaries and six municipal, infant welfare centres, to say nothing of milk distribution schemes and housing schemes, and maternity arrangements with hospitals. In her spare time Dr. Browne confesses she liked to play tennis and golf; but rit doesn't look as if she will have much time for these games ia the future.