[Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Royal Leamington Spa Borough.

  • Leamington (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Royal Leamington Spa Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/72 (page 5)
    Public Health Department, Hamilton House, Leamington Spa, 22nd May, 1931. Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to herewith submit to you the report of the Public Health Department for 1930. There has, this year, been a small natural increase of population, i.e., excess of births over deaths, of 20. The birth rate—although very low, 14 per thousand—is slightly higher than last year, which was the lowest of which there are any records. This figure, as those of all the other statistics, is based on the estimated population for the middle of 1929, as the Registrar-General’s estimate for the middle of 1930 is not available. As regards infectious diseases, both notifiable and non-notifiable, the death rate has been remarkably low. The number of cases of Measles and Mumps were both above the average for the last 20 years, and the number of cases of Scarlet Fever—54—was greater than any year since 1923. Although the Ministry of Health do not require the full Survey Report asked for in 1925 it may be of interest to briefly consider the progress made in the last 5 years. As regards Housing, the Council have built 246 houses during this period and 270 have been erected by private enterprise, as against 170 and 35 respectively in the previous quinquennium. In 1926, the alterations and additions to the Pump Room were completed and the whole establishment brought up-to-date. Fordson Tractors were largely substituted for horse-drawn vehicles for the removal of refuse. In 1927, the refuse destructor was remodelled and reconstructed. The Ante-Natal Clinic was established and arrangements were entered into with the Warneford Flospital for the treatment of cases of Puerperal Fever and Pueperal Pyrexia with the sanction of the Ministry of Health. A private Society known as Leamington Slum Clearance, Ltd., provided the first 8 houses on the Holt Estate. In 1928, the new sewage works which had been begun in the previous year were completed. The powers under the Nursing Homes Registration Act were transferred by the County Council to the Local Authority, and the Post-Natal Clinic was started. In 1929, 10 further houses were erected by the Leamington Slum Clearance Society. An Ultra-Violet Light apparatus was installed at the Clinic for the combined use of the Maternity and Child Welfare and School Clinics.