[Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council.

  • Surrey (England). County Council.
Date:
1962
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/96 (page 10)
    Purchase. In cases where a patient needs an article of nursing equipment permanently, the County Council have agreed to supply it provided an undertaking is given to repay the full cost, which in the case of the more expensive articles may be made by instalments. In necessitous cases the article is provided and the patient is assessed by the County Treasurer as to the amount, if any, required to be con¬ tributed. Venereal Diseases. The clinics at Guildford, Woking, Redhill and Carshalton were continued during the year by the respective Hospital Management Committees. The duty of persuading women defaulters to resume attendance and of securing the attendance of persons exposed to infection continued to be exercised by the Council’s Special Services Visitor. Information as to Surrey residents having been treated at Clinics is obtained from the annual return which is made by the Medical Officer of the Clinic to the Ministry of Health, copies of which the Medical Officer is required to send to the Medical Officer of Health of each County and County Borough in which patients treated at the Clinic reside. The following summarises the information received :— 1962. Guildford Clinic. Redhill Clinic. St. Helier Clinic. Woking Clinic. Croydon Clinic. Other Clinics. Total. New Cases (Surrey). Syphilis 6 1 4 1 4 20 36 (6) (-) (ii) (1) (3) (17) (38) Gonorrhoea ... 28 8 55 5 18 159 273 (45) (3) (63) (?) (22) (177) (317) Other conditions 246 32 510 33 100 909 1,830 (179) (30) (472) (49) (105) (878) (1,713) Totals 280 41 569 39 122 1,088 2,139 (230) (33) (546) (57) (130) (1,072) (2,068) The figures in brackets relate to the year 1961. I mentioned in my report last year that the improvement in the number of cases of syphilis treated at clinics had been halted and that the number of cases was the highest since 1956. It will be noted that there has been a slight improvement only in the position during 1962. It will be seen from the table below, however, that the number of gonorrhoea cases was forty-four fewer than the previous year which is against the trend of a steady increase in the number of cases which has been reported over the past four years. Y ear. Syphilis. Gonorrhoea * Other Conditions. Total. 1947 255 415 2,068 2,738 1948 192 291 2,244 2,727 1949 148 218 1,919 2,285 1950 110 176 2,102 2,388 1951 105 123 1,466 1,694 1952 74 156 1,439 1,669 1953 67 165 1.469 1,701 1954 42 153 1,195 1,390 1955 40 143 1,150 1,333 1956 48 161 1,154 1,363 1957 32 159 1,114 1,305 1958 28 160 1,179 1,367 1959 26 251 1,308 1,585 1960 24 274 1,631 1,929 1961 38 317 1,713 2,068 1962 36 273 1,830 2,139 * The great majority of these conditions are not venereal. Health Education. At the beginning of the year, a full-time Health Education Officer was appointed to undertake the central organisation and control of the County Council’s activities in respect of Health Education. His duties were—on the health side, to advise on the means of health education available at national and regional levels and to consult with the various bodies concerned as to subjects and methods for health education ; to carry out the policy of the County Health Committee on health education within the County ; and to consult with County staff in the field and train them where necessary ; on the education side, to consult with the education department, with head teachers and teachers’