[Report 1956] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Rochdale County Borough.

  • Rochdale (Lancashire, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1956
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1956] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Rochdale County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/132 (page 15)
    MORBIDITY. The Department continues to receive from the Manager of the Local Office of the Ministry of National Insurance a weekly return of the figures of new claims to sickness benefit. This scheme of information was first mentioned in the 1949 Report. There has been no change in the form of the records which are still unanalysed and still cover an area wider than Rochdale itself, since it includes the postal districts of Whitworth and Milnrow. The morbidity graph showed a distinct departure from the usual pattern in the months of February and March. The presence of a secondary rise of much smaller magnitude in November and December is also noteworthy. The former was due to a quite definite wave of influenza, which was of itself short-lived and not severe. UNEMPLOYMENT. I am indebted to the Manager of the Rochdale Employment Exchange for information regarding the state of unemployment in Rochdale and the adjoining districts of Wardle, Whitworth and Milnrow. The average number of unemployed persons on the register during the year ended 31st December, 1956, was as follows :—Men 171, Women 178, making a total of 349. The corresponding figures in 1955 were Men 174, Women 571, totalling 745. I am also informed that in the middle of 1956 there were approximately 53,355 insured persons (28,865 Men, 21,386 Women and 3,104 Juveniles) in employment in the area. AMBULANCE SERVICE. At the end of the year, the fleet comprised three ambulances, one sitting case car and three dual purpose vehicles, together with one 10-horse-power car hired through the Car Hire Service of the Corporation, and used mainly for midwifery and general duties. The personnel consisted of one ambulance officer, twenty-two driver/attendants and two telephonists. The service continues to operate from the garage at Drake Street which houses vehicles, staff on duty, the telephone switchboard, the radio control and office. The second Bedford Lancastrian Minor ambulance, replacing one of the 1948 Humber ambulances, came into service in February, following favourable experience gained in the employment of the previous vehicle of this type. These two vehicles, together with the Austin taxi powered by diesel engine, continued to give economical service.