[Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/422 page 7
    that any real increase is taking place in the incidence of mental disorders. The full effect of these factors has been felt in the mental institutions in which Glasgow patients are accommodated, and the problem of meeting this difficulty is an important and serious one. The medical superintendents of the mental hospitals have assisted materially in providing some additional accommodation in their already crowded institutions. Arrangements are being made to increase by a further 60 beds the mental observation ward accom- modation at Stobhill Hospital. When this is completed the total accommodation for this purpose will amount to some 250 beds. The Glasgow Parish Council was a pioneer in making provision of this kind where mental patients could be admitted and treated without immediate resort to certification and admission direct to a lunatic asylum. The medical and social advantages of a policy of this kind have been noteworthy, and the observation wards in connection with the Eastern District, Stobhill, and the Southern General Hospitals have fulfilled a most valuable function. Reports from the mental institutions are given in briefly summarised form in the following pages. It is hoped next year to make this section somewhat more ample and explanatory of the work carried out. Vital Statistics.—The Census, taken on 26th April, 1931, showed that the population was 1,088,417, an increase of 36,890 on the figure for the same area in 1921, taking into account the territory and population added to the City in 1926. Accurate population figures have not been obtainable since the Census of 1911 for the various reasons given in Section I. In future there will be less dubiety, as the Census will be taken at five-yearly instead of, as formerly, ten-yearly intervals. Throughout the report the vital statistics are based upon an estimated population of 1,088,810 for the year 1930. A full report on the Census has not yet been published, but it is anticipated that important information bearing upon the volume of overcrowding and differential death-rates in the various areas of the City will be forthcoming, information which it has not been possible to obtain accurately for 20 years. On the revised population, the general death-rate was 14 2 per thousand of the population, as compared with 16-3 for the preceding year. The mortality has remained fairly uniform for the past ten years at from 14 to 15 per thousand of the population, with the exception of certain years, such as 1922 and 1929, when influenza and influenzal pneumonia were prevalent.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3