[Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council.

  • North Riding of Yorkshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/78 (page 4)
    INTRODUCTION. To the Members of the North Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit my annual report on the public health services of the County Council for the year 1946. The delay in presenting this report is regretted ; the administrative steps which followed the passing of the Education Act 1944 (which came into force in 1946) and the many changes which have been necessitated by the National Health Service Act, 1946, have thrown an additional heavy burden on the department. This report, read in conjunction with my annual report for 1946 as County School Medical Officer, will give the reader comprehensive information regarding the various activities of the county health department. The principal staff changes which took place in the year under review were the retirement and subsequent death of Dr. J. J. Thomson, the senior clinical tuberculosis officer ; the retirement of Dr. S. Fox Linton from the post of medical officer of health of Scarborough and divisional school medical officer, the resignation on the grounds of ill health of Dr. M. Dale Wood, medical officer of health, Whitby and assistant school medical officer, and the retirement of Dr. W. J. Smyth from the post of senior assistant school medical officer. The infantile mortality which rose from 41-4 in 1944 to 55T in 1945 reverted to a record low figure of 36*5 for the whole administrative county as compared with 43 for England and Wales. The deaths from cancer in the Riding during 1946 were 581 only slightly lower than in the preceding year, but the death rate from this cause was below that for England and Wales (1*75 per 1,000 of the population as compared with 1-84). In conclusion, I should like to express my gratitude to the Chairmen and members of the several committees associated with the health services for their sympathetic support and in particular to County Alderman B. O. Davies and his successor as Chairman of the Public Health, Housing and Sanitary Committee, County Alderman J. T. Fletcher, for their unfailing interest and assistance ; to the staff of the medical department for their loyal service and to my colleagues in other departments for their helpful co-operation. I have the honour to be, Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, J. A. FRASER, County Medical Officer. County Hall, Northallerton, May, 1949.