[Report 1940-1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen City.

  • Aberdeen (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1940-1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE. In 1940 the Secretary of State for Scotland decided not to call for Annual Reports from Medical Officers of Health. He stated, however, that Medical Officers should continue to collect data for a Report which would deal with the health of ' the community during the whole period of the war. This Report deals with the j activities in the Public Health Department during the war years 1940 to 1945 and is essentially in an abbreviated form. With regard to housing, factories, and offensive trades, full details are contained in the Reports of the Chief Sanitary Inspector. On the one hand, the war delayed the building of houses, the erection of clinics, and the extension of hospital provision, but, on the other hand, there were con- siderable advances made in the fields of prevention and treatment of disease. The intensive employment of chemotherapy had outstanding results in the treatment of certain diseases such as cerebro-spinal fever, and progress in this connection is contained in the body of the Report. Penicillin was introduced and proved of immeasurable value in the treatment of many diseases such as certain forms of meningitis, septic wounds and diseases, and venereal diseases. In May, 1940, there was established a Society known as the “Aberdeen and North-East of Scotland Blood Transfusion Service,” which operated within an area comprising the City of Aberdeen and the Counties of Aberdeen, Kincardine, Banff, ' and Moray. The objects of this Society were to take the necessary steps for the continuation, development and expansion of the study of blood, and, in particular, to make available human blood for purposes of treatment in medical and surgical ; institutions—including Service hospitals—and to specialist members of the medical profession within the area, and, in cases of emergency, outwith the area. The : management of the Society was placed in the hands of a Committee of not fewer than 25 persons who, in addition to the Director of the Service, were appointed by the Local Authorities of the areas served, by the voluntary hospitals in Aberdeen, and by other interested organisations. The work of the Blood Bank, which was under the able direction of Professor John-Cruickshanlc, steadily expanded and the development of the blood transfusion treatment was shown by the increasing demands for blood and plasma. Blood transfusion has been shown to be most beneficial in a large variety of surgical and medical cases. It has not only often saved life, but has shortened the period of convalescence, and in this way has shortened institutional waiting lists. Blood donors came forward readily both from the City and from the rural areas. Professor Cruickshank, in one of his Annual Reports to the Society, stated—- “ ‘D-day’ brought a remarkable increase in the offers to give blood, but the stimulus was in many cases a temporary one and there was a quick fall in enthusiasm and a failure to attend after the first bleeding.”