[Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health, Watchet U.D.C.

  • Watchet (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health, Watchet U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Report of Medical Officer of Health for the year ending 31st December. 1936. The Seaport of Watchet, situated on the Bristol Channel, faces nearly due north, and is bounded on the south, west, anu east, by a low chain of hills. It has an equable climate, raild yet bracing, and with a smaller rainfall than its neighbours. It is a residential, manufacturing, and seafaring town. The chief industry is the making of paper, which employs a large portion of the industrial inhabitants. A number of foreign boats, bringing Wood pulp from northern ports, and Esparto Grass from African ports, enter the port annually. The health of the town remains exceedingly good. There were only two cases of notifiable infectious disease, which is about one - per thousand inhabitants. ‘One being Tuberculosis of lungs, and one Diptheria. The total number of deaths for the year was 31. The total number of births was 33* Of children of under a year old there was one death. The health services consists of, one part time medical officer, and one part time Sanit...ry officer. The Council subsidises the Isolation Hospital at Kinehead, to which cases of infectious disease** may be sent. Cases of the major infectious diseases, Cholera, Yellow Fever, Typhus, Small Pox, am Plague, can be sent to the County isolation Hospital. Berths for ships carrying infectious disease have been arranged, The berth for the major diseases in the bay, and those for minor infections in the middle of the harbour. The hospitals at Minahead and Taunton are available for emergencies in the town. The St.Johns ambulance is available for the transport of all but infectious c^ses. The Isolation Hospital having their own ambulance.