[Report 1946-1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Berkshire County Council.

  • Berkshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946-1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Berkshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/50 (page 1)
    To the Chairman and members of the Health Committee of the Berkshire County Council. I have the honour to submit my Report for the years 1946 and 1947. My predecessor Dr. A. Richmond resigned in March, 1946, and Dr. D. Kemp was Acting County Medical Officer until I took up my appointment in September. Dr. Richmond entered the service of the Council in April, 1914, as Tuberculosis Officer. He was appointed County Medical Officer in January, 1935, in succession to Dr. Gerard C. Taylor. Many members of the Committee will have heard with regret of the death of Dr. Taylor in 1946. The vital statistics present striking evidence of the continued improve- ment in the health of the county, and a number of new low records have been achieved : (a) Infant mortality ; the rate for 1947 was the lowest ever recorded, and the proportion of still-births was also a new low record. (b) Maternal mortality : the rate for sepsis in 1946 was the lowest yet recorded, and in 1947, for the first time, there was no maternal death from sepsis, due very largely, no doubt, to the use, in treatment, of the sulphonamides and penicillin. In 1947, the maternal mortality rate from causes other than sepsis reached a new low record. (c) Diphtheria : in 1946, for the first time, there was no death from this disease. (d) Tuberculosis ; the death rate for non-pulmonary tuberculosis in 1947 was a new low record. At several places I have drawn special attention to the need to have regard to the concept of significance in considering the various vital statistics. Chance alone causes considerable proportionate fluctuations in small figures. The smaller the area the longer is the period of time that is required in order to demonstrate, by suitable tests, real improvement or retrogression. The Council has made considerable increases in it’s health services during the two years considered in the report; existing services have been elaborated, and new ones have been created {see especially pp. 11 to 13, and 21). In 1947, the county was involved in the widespread epidemic of poliomyelitis that affected England and Wales, and I have included a special report on the outbreak and its background {pp. 23 to 26). Special attention was given in 1947 to the question of joint appointments of Medical Officers of Health, in order that the same medical officer should carry out, in each area, both the public health work of the County Council and that of the District Council. This system has already been adopted in the majority of other counties, and secures that unification of public health services which is so clearly needed. The first appointment was made in the Royal Borough of New Windsor in November, 1947. Between February and November, 1947, the Health Department was actively engaged in preparing the material for the Council’s proposals under the National Health Service Act, 1946. This represented a very considerable volume of work that was additional to the ordinary work of the department. It required, in the first instance, a complete survey of health services in the county, and of the work of those voluntary agencies which, it was apparent, would have to be incorporated into the final scheme. The first set of proposals (those for the ambulance service and for immunisation and vaccination) had to be presented to the Minister of Health by 30th June,