[Report 1939] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City.

  • Edinburgh (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1939] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/30 (page 1)
    To Public Heal^.B^aiw: Johnston Edinburgh, December 1 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 Report of the Public Health Department of the City of Edinburgh for the year 1939. Despite the outbreak of war, the health of the City, as revealed by the vital statistics for the year, showed little deviation from the normal. The four months of hostilities during 1939 were preceded by eight months of extremely unsettled international relations, commonly alluded to as a “ war of nerves,” but the City’s health indicators remained comparatively undisturbed. The death-rate was equal to 13'1 per 1000 of the population, which was 0‘4 higher than the record low rate returned in 1938 and O’l below the average for the previous five years. The infantile mortality rate, which had fallen to its lowest point in 1938, was further reduced from 61 to 59 per 1000 live births. There was no change in che death-rate from tuberculosis but the incidence of the disease was the lowest on record, the number of cases showing a drop of 43 in the pulmonary group and of 50 in the non-pulmonary group as compared with the previous year. The number of live births registered in the City was 7,300—3,802 males and 3,498 females, representing a sex ratio of 109 males to every 100 females. The birth-rate was 15’5 per 1000 of the estimated population, as compared with 16‘1 for 1938 and an average of 15'8 for the previous five years. As will be readily realised, the normal work of the Public Health Department was overshadowed by the pressing need of setting up casualty services through- out the City and of expanding the hospital accommodation. Routine activities were, however, maintained as far as possible, and these are reviewed briefly in the order recommended by the Department of Health for Scotland. MEDICAL SERVICES. I. Maternity.—The framing of a domiciliary maternity scheme in which the services of midwife, doctor and consultant would be co-ordinated, was hampered for some time by difficulties experienced in the interpretation of certain provisions of the Maternity Services (Scotland) Act, 1937. Discussions with medical practi- tioners and with local voluntary organisations which were to co-operate in the scheme had proceeded satisfactorily, but the outbreak of war and the necessity for speeding up civil defence measures led to a further postponement of what promised to be an extremely valuable reform. The war brought an immediate curtailment in hospital accommodation for maternity cases, and it was found