[Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health, Swinton & Pendlebury Borough.

  • Swinton and Pendlebury (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health, Swinton & Pendlebury Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/104 (page 8)
    I'uBLic Health Department, Town Hall, SWINTON. June 1939. To His Worship the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors oi' THE Torouoh oe Swjnton and Tendlebury. Mr. Mayor, I.adies and Gentlemen, 1 have the honour to present to you rny Report on the health of the Borough during 1938, this being my first complete year as your iMedical Officer of Health. The population of the area continues to grow, the Registrar General’s mid-year estimate being 40,360, an increase of 670 over the previous year. The Birth Rate was 15.0 per thousand of the population as com¬ pared with 15.1 for England and Wales. The Crude Death Rate of 10.7 was below the Death Rate for the country as a whole (11.6) but the ‘‘Comparable” Death Rate of 12.8 was higher; it represents, however, a substantial reduction from the figure for 1937. More than 45% of the deaths occurred in people over 65 years of age. The Infant ^Mortality Rate was 56 per thousand live births as compared with 53 for England and Wales. It is gratifying to record that only one maternal death occurred during 1938, as against 8 during the previous year. Slum Clearance and rehousing 'continued to play an' important part in the Department’s activities during 1938. Altogether 746 persons were rehoused from clearance areas and individual unfit houses, and 133 houses were demolished. The abatement of over¬ crowding also received attention. Details of this work are given in Section IV. Turning to the question of notifiable infectious diseases, the year was remarkable for the high incidence of diphtheria. Notifications in respect of this disease totalled 175 as compared with 68 for the