25th March, 1949
THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF HEALTH,
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,
CANBERRA
Dear Sir,
Application is hereby made for appointment to the position of Senior Medical Officer, Grade III, National Health Services, Canberra, as advertised in the Commonwealth Gazette, No. 20, of 10th March, 1949.
Details of qualifications and experiences are attached.
I may add that in the course of my civil and military duties I have travelled extensively in every State and Territory of the Commonwealth, and have an unusually comprehensive knowledge of medical and public health practice throughout the Continent.
In my capacity as Chief Medical Officer, Northern Territory, I had an early opportunity of studying the integration of public health administration into a salaried medical service, which in my capacity as Commissioner of Public Health and Principal Medical Officer, Western Australia, I have been able to supplement by the direction of health administration in a State where Medical Officers of Health are in small part salaried and for the most part in private practice.
Yours faithfully,
Cecil Cook
COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC HEALTH.
Enclosures
COOK, Cecil Evelyn Aufrere.
DETAILS OF QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCES
Born: Born Bexhill, Sussex, England, 23.9.1897
Resident in Australia since 1900.
Qualifications, etc.:
- M.B. Ch. M. Syd. 1920.
- D.T.M. & H. Lond. 1923.
- M.D. Syd. 1929.
- D.P.H. Syd. 1930.
Service:
Resident Medical Officer, Brisbane General Hospital, and later Medical Officer, Hughenden and Longreach Hospitals 1920 – 22.
Wandsworth Research Scholar, London School of Tropical Medicine 1923-25. During this period I conducted on behalf of the Commonwealth Department of Health an enquiry into the epidemiology of leprosy in Australia involving extensive itineraries in Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales.
1926. Medical Officer, Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine, Townsville. For six months of this period I was engaged in a special epidemiological investigation into ankylotomiasis in the Cairns-Babinda area, North Queensland.
1927 – 39. Chief Medical Officer, Northern Territory. The office of Chief Medical Officer included that of Chief Health Officer, Chief Protector of Aboriginals, and Quarantine Officer.
1939 – 41. Medical Officer, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Sydney.
1941 – 46. On Active Service with A.I.F. For the first eighteen months of war service I was posted as Pathologist to the 2/12th Australian General Hospital and served in Ceylon.
In April, 1943, I was posted D.A.D.H. 2 Aust. Corps with which I served in New Guinea, and was later posted A.D.H., New Guinea Force, and subsequently A.D.H. Advanced LHG with Hqs. At Morotai, ranking as Lt. Col. At this time I was the senior Hygiene Officer serving in the field with the Australian Forces.
April 1946. Discharged from A.I.F. to take up duty as Commissioner of Public Health and Principal Medical Officer, Western Australia, which position I still hold.
During my three years as Commissioner of Public Health in Western Australia I have closely studied the problems associated with infant mortality and child health. Factors contributing to the stillbirth rate, neonatal mortality, and infant mortality, have been carefully examined and as a result legislation was enacted by Parliament during the 1948 Session requiring the notification of premature births, the notification of stillbirths, and the performance of autopsies on stillborn infants.
Close liaison has been maintained between myself as Commissioner of Public Health and the Medical Superintendent, Children’s Hospital, specialist paediatricians, and specialist obstetricians, with a view to concerted action towards reducing infant mortality.
It may be remarked that the infant mortality rate in country districts which has stood consistently around 35 per thousand live births for some years, has fallen in the year 1948 to 28.5.
Close attention has been give into improving schools medical and dental service, and to organising of immunisation clinics.
Publications:
1929. Commonwealth Department of Health Service Publication – “The Epidemiology of Leprosy in Australia”.
November 18th, 1944. Medical Journal of Australia – “Observations of the Epidemiology of Scrub Typhus”.
As I have been practically all my practising life in the employment of Government Departments most of my published material has been in the form of reports issued by various official bodies.
In 1935 I spent three months in Malaya studying Malaria Epidemiology and Control at the School conducted by the League of Nations.
Honours: C.B.E. 1935, Cilento Medal 1935.