[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City.

  • Edinburgh (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    but an increase in the number of new sufferers. Supervision of contacts is being maintained with thoroughness, but lack of hospital beds, or rather of hospital nurses, means that the “ open ” case will continue to be a danger to others, although greater priority in housing was recently accorded to those afflicted with tuberculosis. It is hoped that the use of B.C.G. vaccine, the value of which has been proved in France and Scandinavia, will be introduced for the protection of children and of personnel engaged in tuberculosis nursing. 2. Vital Statistics. According to estimates by the Registrar-General for Scotland, Edinburgh’s population is still increasing. There has been no census since 1931, and present- day estimates, based on information derived from various sources, assume the population at mid-year 1948 to be 488,331, an increase of 2,667 over 1947. The number of live children born was 8,420, giving a birth-rate of 17-2 per thousand of the estimated population. This represented a drop of 3-1 per thousand from the post-war peak of the previous year, but it was still a higher rate than those common for ten years before the war and during it. A slight increase was noted in the still-birth rate, which, at 29 per thousand total births, was, however, one of the lowest since still-births became registrable ten years ago. There were 15 maternal deaths as against 12 in the previous year, and the rate per thousand total births rose from TO to T7. The most arresting figure of the year related to infant mortality, which dropped from 49 deaths per thousand live births to 34 per thousand. One has to go back 22 years to find a heavier slump in a single year. The rate was, of course, a record and one that may be difficult to maintain. It is lower than the rate for all Scotland (45), and for the second year in succession it is lower than those returned for the other seven large burghs in Scotland except Aberdeen (33). Twenty years ago the infant mortality in Edinburgh was 75 per thousand live births, which means that the rate in that relatively short period has fallen by 55 per cent. Deaths from all causes numbered 5,955, representing a death-rate of 12-2 per thousand of the estimated population, the low'est in the history of the city. There has been a progressive fall in the general death-rate for the past five years. The average for the five years 1940-44 was 15-0 per thousand of the population. 3. National Health Service. A milestone in local government was reached on 5th July 1948 by the introduction of the National Health Service. Local authorities wrere relieved of hospital administration and had placed on them the duty of instituting entirely new services and the expansion of some services already existing. They also remained responsible for the various duties relating to the control of infectious diseases and those duties falling to the Sanitary and Veterinary Departments. Similarly, the School Health Service was unaltered by the National Health Sendee Act and remained under the administrative control of the Medical Officer of Health. The Health Committee made a careful review of their newr functions and submitted arrangements for implementing them which were approved by the