[Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Berkshire County Council.

  • Berkshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1941
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Berkshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In 1941, 18 defective patients were admitted to institutions, 9 were released on licence and 18 died. Statutory Supervision. There were 104 defectives under statutory supervision during the year. All cases were visited quarterly by the County Health Visitors, who submitted reports to the County Medical Officer. Voluntary Supervision. At the end of the year there were 114 patients under voluntary supervision. All were seen at regular intervals by the county health visitors who submitted reports to the County Medical Officer. BLIND PERSONS ACT, 1920. The report of the Berkshire County Blind Society showed that there were 322 persons on their register on 31st March, 1942, compared with 317 the previous year. During the year, 35 new cases were registered. The total number of cases referred to the certifying ophthalmic surgeons was 39 and, of these, 5 were certified as not being blind within the meaning of the Blind Persons Act, 1920. Twenty-four of those certified as blind were over 60 years of age. During the year, 1 person who had previously been certified as blind was removed from the register as the sight had improved so much that the case no longer came under the definition of a blind person. Twenty-two blind persons died and 7 left the county to reside in other areas. Home teachers continued their domiciliary visits to blind persons. At the end of the year there were 15 blind home workers in the county. During the year 119 Berkshire residents and 23 evacuees had, or were, receiving domiciliary assistance. PUBLIC ASSISTANCE INSTITUTIONS. At the request of the Ministry of Health, arrangements were made for increasing the number of beds by crowding and using other rooms at the institutions. Certain alterations and additions of sanitary arrangements were necessary. Finally, increased accommodation was made as follows :— Newbury Wallingford Maidenhead Wokingham Windsor Wantage Increase of 72 beds. „ 64 46 54 „ 51 28 At all these institutions there is a shortage of nurses’ accommodation and efforts will be made to employ the extra nurses required from the local nursing organisations. All the institutions, with the exception of Windsor, are classified as Grade 2 hospitals, i.e. for convalescent patients. Windsor Institution has been made a Grade 1a hospital and huts to accommodate 260 patients have been erected.