[Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough.

  • Bournemouth (England). County Borough Council. nb2004301338.
Date:
1955
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/164 (page 4)
    'I'lie infant mortality rate fell dnrinj;): \Ur>r} to the verv low figure of lo.l ])er 1,(100 live births, an achievement that would hav( been conskiered impossible even a few years ago. As pointed out ir the more detailed discussion of infant mortality in the body of tht Report, we are now reaching the stage where little further reductior ; can be expected by concentrating on infant welfare alone. W^e miLS*-] go much ftirther back, to the education of the adolescent girl ir mothercraft, and to the most scrupuloasly careful supervision of the expectant mother, both from a clinical and educational point o‘' view. Two deaths were allocated to maternal causes during the year the first to be so recorded since 1052. In one case the mother diec ' in hospital following the birth of a stillborn baby, but the seconc case has only been placed in this group b}^ the Registrar Genera. for the sake of statistical tidiness, as the confinement took place over 2b years ago. The incidence of infectious disease remained generally low during the year, with the exception of measles, which showed it? well known biennial epidemic trend during 1955, and caused 1,862- cases. There ^vere 16 cases of poliomyelitis, compared with 2 cases in 1954, and the disease was in a severe form, causing four deaths' The death rate from pulmonar}^ tuberculosis declined to tht very low level of .08 per 1,000 population, and this local experienct has been shared by the rest of the country, and is due to the great advances in treatment during the last few years. More efficient case finding methods have resulted in earlier treatment, and an all out attack upon this disease could, in the opinion of many, lean to its virtual extinction in the not too distant future. Dr. \V. H Tattersall, vSenior Chest Physician, comments very fully in his report on the whole problem of tuberculosis in Bournemouth. During the year the Ambulance Service carried a greater numbe) of patients than ever before, 41,508 j^atients being carried a distance of 213,862 miles. By careful administration this huge total ot patients, equal to more than one in every four of the population has been carried with a greater economy of mileage than in an> ]:)revious year. A greac deal of information has been given about the persona and domiciliary services provided by the Council, partly at the request of the Ministry, but also to give greater prominence to tht