[Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen City.

  • Aberdeen (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/133 (page 7)
    Vll As for immunisation against tuberculosis, this has so far been offered only to contacts of the disease : 333 persons were immunised during 1952. The incidence of tuberculosis, although far lower than in the south-west of TUBERCULOSIS Scotland, is not yet falling. Indeed, the number of notified cases in 1952 (208 INFECTIOUS respiratory and 27 non-respiratory) was higher than in the previous year. The DISEASES, prevalence of other infectious diseases was fairly low: there were, for example, 801 intimated cases of measles, 549 cases of whooping cough, 314 of scarlet fever, 10 of enteric fever, 18 of poliomyelitis, 14 of dysentery, and 3 of diphtheria. During the year there have been considerable developments in the Corpora- CARE AND tion’s services for the elderly. The first two residential homes at Balnagask and oj,!^heRE Ferryhill Place had been opened at the end of 1950 and 1951 respectively; and ELDERLY, in 1952 a building adjacent to No. 3, Ferryhill Place was acquired (and will ultimately form part of an enlarged home) and a specially designed building was in course of erection at Northfield. There is, of course, a pressing need for the acquisition of other buildings as these become available and for the construction of other specifically designed homes. Even more important than residential homes are services designed to maintain the health of old people who can then in many cases remain happily in their own houses. During the year a chiropody service was made available for unemployed old persons: by the end of December, 165 persons had received treatment, and the service had established itself as of the highest value. Although shortage of health visitors prevented full implementation of the policy of visiting old persons in their homes, 200 elderly people were actually being visited at the close of the year: by acting both as “health” visitors under the Corporation’s schemes for prevention and after-care and as “ welfare ” visitors under the National Assistance Act, the health visitors have a better chance to become—or to remain—the trusted friends and advisers of the persons visited. Probably these visits can do more than any other single aspect of the service to promote the health and well-being of old people, and to ensure that persons in need of any particular type of assistance actually get it. Another feature of 1952 was the creation, by the District Nursing Association at the instance of the Corporation, of a night nursing service which, although still in process of development in December, helped 175 persons during the year. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that 59 per cent, of the time of the home nurses on day duty and 78 per cent, of the time of night nurses was devoted to persons over the age of 65; and during the year home helps were made available for 225 such persons. While it may well be that the health and welfare services for old people will expand vastly in the next few years, and indeed that sheer economic necessity will make it imperative that communities pay increased attention to preventing disease and maintaining health in persons in the elderly seventh of the population, it can at least be said that the services in Aberdeen have already made a good start.