[Report 1937] / Medical Officer of Health, Bromyard R.D.C.

  • Bromyard (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1937] / Medical Officer of Health, Bromyard R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    NOTIFIABLE DISEASES (other than Tuberculosis) during 1937. Disease. CASES NOTIFIED. All Under 12 3 4 5 10 15 ages, i yr. Scarlet Fever II —• Diphtheria 3 — Erysipelas 2 — Pneumonia 15 1 Puerperal Pyrexia 2 — Opthalmia Neonatorum _l 1 Total ... 34 2 — I 2 2 11 2 1 1 20 35 45 65 Cases and ad. to T'tl over. H’p. Dts. 4 I I 4 5233 10 4 ISOLATION HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION. During 1937 ten cases from the District were admitted to the Credenhill Isolation Hospital. No cases have been refused admission, but, on occasion we have had to wait while it was ascertained whether there was a vacant bed. The present arrangement ts that the Hospital is owned and worked by the Hereford Eural District, which also rents tlie old Bromyard Isolation Hospital as a Smallpox Hospital. The Rural and TTrban Dis- tricts of Bromyard retain four beds between tliem. The retaining fee is £15 per bed. The Councils are only entitled to have the number of patients in hospital for which they retain beds. The only two diseases, other than Smallpox, in the agreement are Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria, moreover they must not be complicated on admission by either having been in contact with or, even more important, by being actual sufferers from some other infectious disease. The hospital authorities have always, but as an act of grace, taken in other infections such as Typhoid Fever, Cerebro-Spinal Fever, and the like. They have, also, not insisted on the number of patients being limited and as many as six cases have been in hospital from one district at one time. No attempt has been made to obtain extra payment for these cases, maintenance charges being the same as for those cases covered by the retaining fee. The facts are quite definite as regards the present arrangements. (a .The number of beds available under the agreement for each authority is inadequate. (b) The diseases treated under the agreement are too limited. The inability to obtain accommodation for complicated cases of measles, whooping cough and influenza was mentioned in last year’s report. The use of a common hospital has proved its worth in more beds being available for a given authority at a given time than would have been the case if provision had been made in a small hospital for that authority only. The importance of having definite arrangements for the treatment of all infectious diseases cannot be overstressed. Delay through havin to find or improvise accommodation may seriously jeopardise t]i chances of recovery of the patient. CD rq