[Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Batley Borough.

  • Batley (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1967
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Batley Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/96 (page 5)
    June, 1968 To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Batley. I have pleasure in presenting the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health relating to the Borough of Batley for the year 1967. My appoint- ment in Batley commenced on the 31st August of this year on the retire- ment of Dr. J. F. Caithness who was your Medical Officer of Health from June, 1949; at the same time, with the agreement of the District Councils concerned, the County Council amalgamated the former Batley and Heckmondwike Divisional Health area with that of Spenborough and Mirfield, in which area I had served as Medical Officer of Health and Divisional Medical Officer since 1947. Information is given in the Report about the Health Services provided by the County Council within the component districts of the Divisional area. Further, in the section relating to the functions of the Batley Health Department the opportunity has been taken to give retrospective informa- tion covering the past ten years in order to provide a permanent record of events and activities within that period. Some points from the Report are perhaps worthy of particular note. The population of the Borough is given as 41,160, an increase of 320 over last year, and of 1,530 during the past ten years. The Birth Rate of 22.5 births per thousand population is substantially higher than that for England and Waxes, and the Infant Mortality, Neonatal and Stillbirth rates all compare favourably with the national figures (page 15). There were 928 live births during the year, of which 112 were to Commonwealth immigrant mothers. Of the births 867 or 93 % took place in Maternity Homes or Hospitals. The Death Rate for the year was 11.9 deaths per thousand population, and the natural increase in population, births minus deaths, was 439. The commonest causes of death were heart disease including coronary disease (157 cases), cancer (90 cases), cerebral haemorrhage and thrombosis (86 cases) and respiratory disease (60 cases). Notifications of infectious disease were few during the year except for measles, 367 cases, which was widespread throughout the Borough. Twelve new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis were notified of which nine were in respect of Commonwealth immigrants, and of the six new cases of non-pulmonary tuberculosis five were in respect of immigrants. All immigrants newly arrived in this country and giving as their domicile an address in Batley, are visited by officers of the Public Health Depart- ment, advised about registering with medical practitioners and x-ray examinations are arranged unless this has been carried out recently. Similarly all immigrant children entering school for the first time receive a preliminary medical examination including Tuberculin testing and an examination of the blood. Details of these are given on page 64 of the Report. An Immigrant Liaison Committee was formed during the year and met for the first time towards the end of August. The Health Committee was instrumental in inaugurating this venture, but although several useful