[Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/338 (page 7)
    PREFACE It is satisfactory to report that the health of Glasgow’s citizens continues to improve. In spite of the severe weather experienced at the beginning and end of the year there have been fewer deaths, 13,841, with a marked reduction in mortality from infectious disease and from tuberculosis. For the second year in succession there has been an increase in the births, which numbered 20,337 in 1952. This favourable trend, coinciding with a much reduced infant mortality rate of 41, the lowest rate yet recorded for the city, will ensure a higher proportion of children in the population. Migration overseas and removal to other areas outwith the city boundary have resulted in a further reduction of population to its present figure of 1,086,800. Redistribution of the population within the city continues with an influx in the north-east and south-west as the new housing schemes in these areas reach completion. At Whitsunday, 1952, there were 304,459 occupied houses in the city, an increase of 2,468 from the previous year. The number of empty houses steadily increases as a result of the now established practice of offering tenement houses for sale whenever they fall vacant. This year I have selected for comment those parts of the Department’s work principally concerned with the administration of the National Health Service Act. My reasons for doing so are that the Government has appointed a Special Committee to review the rising cost of the Service and that the Department of Health for Scotland has requested all Medical Officers of Health to comment on the working of those sections of the National Health Service Act which they administer. I have listed the salient points under the appropriate section numbers of the Act. Bacteriological Service (Section 18). The Department possesses its own laboratory, which has been established for over fifty years and has a very high reputation for prompt and satisfactory service. Over 100,000 specimens per year are examined. The laboratory has materially assisted the Western Regional Hospital Board in the routine work in Glasgow and in examining specimens from certain outlying districts. It is always ready to undertake additional emergency work at short notice. A satisfactory financial arrangement has recently been reached between the Corporation and the Regional Hospital Board for work carried out.