[Report 1940] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City.

  • Edinburgh (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1940
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1940] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/46 (page 1)
    Johnston Terraotc., Edinburgh, August ' 1941. To The Department of Health for Scotland and The Right Honourable the Lord Provost, Magistrates and Council of the City of Edinburgh. My Lord Provost, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit the Annual Report of the Public Health Depart- ment of the City of Edinburgh for the year 1940. Owing to population changes brought about by the war, the vital statistics for the year are not strictly comparable with those of previous years, and their value as health indicators is limited. The birth-rate was calculated on an estimated population which included an allowance for males absent on war service, and at 15-5 per 1000 the rate was the same as for the preceding year. The number of births was 6,930. Death-rates, on the other hand, were calculated on the number of normal civilian deaths occurring among the estimated civilian population. This means that deaths from war causes were excluded, and that the population figure was reduced by an estimated number of non-civilian persons. This exclusion from the reckoning of a considerable proportion of the most virile section of the race tended to increase the death-rate, and on that basis the general death-rate in the City was 15-9 per 1000 and was the highest since 1919. An important factor contributing to the high rate, and one that left its mark on mortality rates all over Britain, was the abnormally severe weather experienced during the first three months of the year, when the long sustained wintry con- ditions, believed to be the worst for forty-five years, took a heavy toll on the aged and the infirm. Of the 6,802 deaths which occurred in the City, 3,600 or 53 per cent, related to persons over 65 years of age. The deaths of infants under one year were 468, equivalent to an infant mortality rate of 68 per 1000 live births. The rate is nine more than in the previous year, but maintains the average of the past ten years. As in the case of the general death-rate, the rise in infantile mortality was noted chiefly in the first quarter of the year, when it was 85 as against 76 for 1939. War conditions and the increasing administrative burden resulting from civil defence requirements continued to hamper the normal work of the Public Health Department, but the services were on the whole well maintained and they are reviewed briefly in the order recommended by the Department of Health for 1. Maternity.—The importance of ante-natal care has been regularly stressed in Edinburgh, and despite the difficulties of the times, it was found possible to maintain the system of ante-natal clinics at the usual thirteen centres throughout the year. By this means more than three-quarters of the births occurring in the Scotland. A