[Report 1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Worcestershire / County of Worcester County Council.

  • Worcestershire (England). County Council.
Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Worcestershire / County of Worcester County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/44 (page 1)
    b v \ »&t a A & it WORCESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL. Annum. Report of the County Medical Officer for the Year 1945. To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health and Housing Committee. Mr. Adam, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to present my Annual Report on the health of the County for the year 1945. The delay in publication is due to the late receipt of the Registrar General’s statistical returns and to pressure of work in other directions. I shall endeavour in future to present the report earlier, as much of the interest is lost when the period covered by the report is so long past. Vital Statistics. The unexpectedly good figures (which are accepted as indi¬ cations of health conditions) during the War years, were again maintained in 1945. The birth rate, 18.2 per thousand, is somewhat lower than in 1944 ; this drop has not resulted in any appreciable reduction in the demand for maternity home beds. This latter circumstance is due to housing difficulties. Although the County Council is not a general Housing Authority there can be no doubt that housing constitutes the major acute problem to-day with its repercussions on County Services such as Hospitals, Sanatoria and Maternity Homes. The infant mortality rate 43, whilst not a record, is not un¬ satisfactory ; the rate in Oldbury Borough 34, is again outstandingly good. The death rate of mothers following on child bearing, 1.19 per thousand births, is almost a record for the county, whilst the still¬ birth rate, 26 per thousand births, is another index which confirms the hope raised in comparable figures of recent years that permanent improvement has at last occurred. The death rate, 11.4, is slightly higher than in 1944.