[Report 1932] / Medical Officer of Health, Dundee City.

  • Dundee (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1932] / Medical Officer of Health, Dundee City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/286 (page 7)
    Annual Report—1932 The health of a community cannot be accurately measured by vital statistics, but these, nevertheless, serve as a useful guide to progress. The figures for a particular year cannot with justice be considered alone. It is necessary to examine the statistics for a period of years in order that a fairly reliable idea may be obtained of the. tendency towards health. One might be tempted to empha- sise too much the various death-rates, etc., which have emerged during the year 1932 because they are particularly satisfactory when set alongside those for previous years. Nothing of special note happened during the period under review which can be said to be responsible for the satisfactory rates, and one is entitled to assume that the constant pressure of the public health machine is having a very definite effect and will continue to have such an effect so long as the pressure is maintained. The tendency for many years has been for the various death-rates to show a decline, and last year produced the lowest rates ever recorded. It is no doubt tempting to claim as the principal cause of the satisfactory position, the work of the official Public Health. Department of Dundee Town Council, but no such claim is made. The public health activities are shared by the Town Council and other official health authorities, e.g., the National Health Insurance Services, which attain their majority this year, and many voluntary health authorities, such as the. Royal Infirmary, Infant Hospital, the Sick Poor Nursing Society, etc., etc. The Town Council have been for many years, through their Sanitary and Housing Departments, trying to improve the immediate environment of the citizens. The standard of living of the people themselves is steadily improving as the result, to some extent, of their own enlightenment, to better working conditions, and to the development of social services. An improved public opinion and the organisation of medical services, have succeeded in bringing medical practitioners in contact with disease at a much earlier stage than used to be the case, with the result that remedial measures are exhibited at a time when success is more likely to be achieved. The same causes are leading to a more concentrated search for disease, and routine inspection of the individual is becoming a public health measure of more widely recognised importance. Nowadays, the mother takes it for granted