Annual report on the Falkland Islands and Dependencies / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
[1948]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Falkland Islands and Dependencies / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/46 (page 12)
    full-time schools, two part-time schools and three travelling teachers on the East Falklands, and two full-time schools, two part-time schools and four travelling teachers on the West Falklands. The Government grants two scholarships each year for three-year courses of secondary education at the British School in Montevideo. There are as yet no facilities in the Colony for higher or vocational education. HEALTH Although the climate is rather deficient in sunlight it is healthy, especially in the Camp districts, but rather damp in and around Stanley and therefore not very suitable for persons with any rheu¬ matic tendencies. During the summer the constant high winds are trying. The quality of the food in the Colony is good, although it lacks variety, especially with regard to vegetables, but with care in cultiva¬ tion it is possible to guarantee a nine months’ supply. Fruit is imported from Montevideo, but red and white currants, gooseberries, and raspberries grow well locally, although their cultivation is as yet very limited. The staff of the Medical Department includes a Senior Medical Officer, three Medical Officers, one of whom is stationed in West Falkland and another at Darwin, a dental surgeon, a nurse matron and a qualified nursing sister, and in addition six junior nurses locally recruited and trained. During the year a Medical Officer made periodical tours of the north part of East Falkland. King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in Stanley has 17 beds, an operating theatre, quarters for nurses, and an out-patients' depart¬ ment. Separate buildings provide a surgery and workshop for the dentist. Extensive alterations and extensions to the hospital are to be carried out under a Colonial Development and Welfare Scheme, and work was started towards the end of the year. During 1948, 148 persons were admitted to hospital as against 186 in 1947, 1,461 new cases were seen in the out-patients’ department, and 2,034 visits were made to patients in their own homes in Stanley. Eighty-six operations were performed, 19 of them being , major operations, as compared with 65 in 1947. Seven deaths took place in the hospital. The medico-electric section carried out successful work during the year and has proved of special value in cases of skin disease and muscular rheumatism. The out-patients’ department of the hospital provides ante- and post-natal services in Stanley, the clinics being very well attended, but not in the Camp at present. Thirty-five births took place in the hospital with no maternal deaths. There was one foetal death. On the district there was one delivery at home. Gastro-enteritis is endemic in the Colony. A scheme is being pre¬ pared for the investigation of the aetiology of this disease. Between January and April, 1948, there was an epidemic due to a