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

  • Todmorden (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1955
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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

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    fire grates, inadequate cooking and washing facilities, steep steps and rickety or narrow stairs, outside privies or toilets, absence of baths and washbasins, inadequate hot water, faulty gas fittings and easily frozen pipes. This sort of environment would present a problem for young and active families. How much worse is it, then, for those weakened by age, impoverished by retirement and demoralised by frustration and loneliness ? Neither an ex¬ tended domiciliary service nor institutional care is the com¬ plete answer to this problem. My own experience is that the aged rarely seek institutional care before the situation has become desperate. When they do ultimately secure a place in a welfare home, they go only with sorrowful reluctance. Housing authorities hold the key to the solution of this problem. The old folks should be brought back into the com¬ munity, into dwellings which are easy to live in and easy to manage and where assistance, if required, can be easily given. Local Authorities, with their vested interest in the health and welfare of the community, cannot continue to postpone action indefinitely on economic grounds. Should not the community as a whole, in this era of full employment, be capable of making this investment in its own future? Is it that we cannot afford or that we do not wish to afford? The cost of basic essential local government services (including housing) is negligible compared with the combined cost of such luxuries as alcohol, tobacco, television, etc. The com¬ munity must reconsider and revise its scale of values and then decide what are the true basic pre-requisites of health and happiness. A more cheerful feature of the vital statistics of the Borough is the continued absence of maternal mortality. Todmorden now has the proud record of over 2,700 births without a single maternal death, a reflection of the efficiency of midwives and doctors. In order to maintain this standard of excellence and, at the same time, to reduce still further the mortality of new-born infants, the services provided by the Ante-natal Clinic at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Centre have been extended. They now include classes for “relaxation” exercises and health education. The young expectant mother is not only given regular and thorough medical tests and examinations but is also helped to under¬ stand the needs and problems of each stage of pregnancy and labour. She is also told of the part that she will have to play to ensure full and effective co-operation with the mid-