[Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Stalybridge Borough.

  • Stalybridge (Cheshire). Borough Council.
Date:
1959
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Stalybridge Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/90 (page 3)
    TO THE CFLIIRMM im MEiffiERS OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH COmilTTEE. Gentlemen, At this time of the year it is the duty of your Medical Officer of Health to submit his Annual Report for consideration. This will be the eleventh such report and in presenting it I may summarise the year’s work as one of tv/elve months routine in which the normal admini¬ stration of preventive meaimres was the daily round. The pattern of this routine v;as changed by placing emphasis on certain functions such as slum clearance and, up to a point, clean air. Five areas of slum clearance were declared and this brings the total to twenty-three since 1955• When the Committee first considered the problem of slum clearance it was felt by some that all such property in the town should be cleared v/ithin five years - a task v/ell beyond the powers of your staff to accomplish, I am, hov/ever, pleased to report that at the time of writing we are slightly ahead of the first five year programme which will be reviewed in my next annual report. I doubt whether we could increase the rate and I am sure I am also speaking on behalf of the ether departments which are involved in slum clearance v/ork. The progress tov/ards a cleaner atmosphere received a severe check towards the end cf the year when it was decided to postpone a decision on this vital subject. Smoke is an insidious poison carrying on its destructive work over the years and causing much ill health, ijhysical distress and damage to fabric. We are already blessed with a dam.p atmosphere which cam become lethal when mixed with smoke and the vigorous pursuit of a clean air programme would contribute a lot tov/ards producing more positive health among the town's inhabitants. It is gratifying to be able to report another year with a lov/ infantile mortality rate. In this field medical science has almost reached a stage cf improvement beyond which it is impossible to go. However I would point out that certainly c^ne of the the infant deaths could have been prevented by the parent of the baby concerned. In 1959 there was a reduction in the birth rate v/hich fell to 14«42 por 1,000 population. There was, however, a corresponding fall in the death rate to 13.93 per thousandpopulation. These rates are based on an estimated population of 22,490 a figure which will be verified when the next Census is taken in I96I.