[Report 1940] / Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council.

  • North Riding of Yorkshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1940
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1940] / Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (vii) Supervision of Milk Supplies. During 1940 the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries issued 457 “ attested ” licences : the total number of “ tuberculin tested ” herds and “ accredited ” herds supervised by the Public Health Committee under the Milk (Special Designations) Orders were 146 and 218 respectively as compared with 143 and 183 in 1939. (viii) Public Assistance. Progress was made during the year in the construction of the Emergency Plospital at Northallerton and the new Nurses’ home at Guisborough. They are being erected by the Ministry of Works and Buildings and the County Council respectively. Considerable difficulty was experienced at times in securing suitable and sufficient accommodation for the chronic sick persons who made application for institutional relief at various times during the year. (ix) Mental Deficiency. The accommodation at Claypenny Colony, Easingwold, administered by the Committee for the care of the Mentally Defective has been fully taxed during the year. As in previous years certain medical officers on the staff of the County Medical Officer acted as Certifying Officers under the Mental Deficiency Acts and gave material assistance to the Statutory Committee in the course of their duties : the assistant school medical officers and the school nurses also assisted in the ascertainment of mental defects. (x) Civil Defence. The staff of the County Health Department expended a considerable portion of their time and energy on the administration and operation of the Civil Defence Casualty Services during the year. Many alterations and improvements on the lines set out in departmental circulars were made and the close co-operation with the medical officers of health of the County districts continued. Frequent memoranda of instructions to the same officers were issued as a result of the Government Circulars dealing with the casualty and allied civil defence services and on behalf of my predecessor I desire to place on record my appreciation of their support and enthusiasm which never flagged in spite of the claims of their peace-time duties and the varied instructions given in successive circulars. Several groups of “ evacuees ” were received in the Riding during the year : as regards children of school age, reference has been made in the report of the School Medical Officer for 1940 to the North Riding Education Committee. Briefly the cleanliness of evacuated persons showed an improvement over similar conditions in 1939, but it is a fact that the percentage of children found to be verminous is greater among evacuees than among those normally resident in the Riding. Since the end of the year under review a Psychiatric Social Worker has been appointed by the County Council at the request of the Ministry of Health to assist billeting authorities by advising regarding the possible lines of treatment in cases where conflicting standards of be¬ haviour cause friction in the households of recipients.