[Report 1944] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter.

  • Exeter (England). City Council.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1944] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/52 (page 33)
    X-RAY EXAMINATIONS. During the year 886 X-ray examinations were made (371 for screen only). Of this total, 54 examinations were made on behalf of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, and 28 examinations were m.ade in accordance with the instructions contained in Ministry of Health's Circular 33/44, dated 2Ist March, 1944, referring to the medical examination of hospital staffs. VENEREAL DISEASE. With the approval of the Ministry of Health, the special clinic for these diseases is held at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. The clinic deals with patients from the City and the County. The hours of attendance are :— Men Mondays, 3—5 p.m., and Fridays, 6—8 p.m. Women Fridays, 3—5 p.m., and, since 3rd July, 1944, Mondays, 6—7 p.m. in addition. Attendances are not limited to clinic hours, but patients attend at other times for interim treatment. These arrangements are intimated to all medical practitioners in the City. There is also an arrangement with the authorities of St. Mary's Home (voluntary) for the treatment of unmarried mothers. The incidence of venereal disease in Exeter is not high. The following table gives the figures for the past seven years of those attending for treatment for the diseases named for the first time. The figures for syphilis may be taken as representing fairly accurately the incidence of that disease locally. As a good many cases of gonorrhoea are undoubtedly treated privately, the figures are less reliable. Chancroid is unimportant in this country. The increasing number of persons seeking advice, presumably after exposure to the risk of infection, and found not to be suffering from venereal disease, may be regarded as an awakening of public opinion to the dangers involved. Equally satisfactory is the small number of patients who default before completing treatment and tests of cure.