[Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health, Buxton Borough.

  • Buxton (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health, Buxton Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/76 (page 2)
    Public Health Department, Peak Buildings, Buxton. To the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Buxton. Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to present the Annual Report on the Health of the Borough of Buxton for 1938. The statistics for the year show several interesting features. Thus the live birth-rate per 1,000 population was 17.22—the highest for 10 years—compared with 15.1 for England and Wales. Consistently with the high birth-rate there is a high death-rate, viz., 12.86 against that for England and Wales of 11.6, but the figures do not quite convey the true position. In other words, the number of births exceeds the deaths to such an extent as to negative the increased death-rate—the number of births being 288 and the deaths 215. The diseases which claimed the largest number of deaths were : Heart Disease (49), Cancer (31), Pneumonia (14), Senility (11), and Cerebral Haemorrhage (8). I regret to record that the Cancer figure (31) IS the largest since 1928. It IS hoped that by the efforts of the British Empire Cancer Campaign—of which I have the honour to be the local Honorary Secretary—the public may become more enlightened, by means of public instruction and lectures, on this vitally important subject. The Maternity and Child Welfare Committee continues it’s provision of excellent guidance and help to the expectant mother and to the young child, and the many morbid conditions, consequent upon child bearing, are duly investigated and treated by the obstetric specialist Mr. F. H. Lacey, to whom I desire to express my sincere thanks for his unfailing courtesy and advice. There is one aspect of the public health service to which I must refer and to which, I fervently hope, the Corporation will give its immediate and wholehearted support. I allude to the need for houses for the working classes. There are m the Borough many houses which have been “ broken