[Report 1944] / Medical Officer of Health, Eccles Borough.

  • Eccles (Greater Manchester, England). Borough Council.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1944] / Medical Officer of Health, Eccles Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/26 (page 5)
    ’WELFARE KATERFIl'Y AND CHII.D During tiie -vear- Dl'D births were notifed in the horougn. ihe nett nuraber of hirths 7/as 708 equivalent to a provj.sIonal 'birth I’ate of r? ■ 6 per 1,000 of the population» 1.1.3 deaths of infants under one year of age occurred equivaieni to an irD-ani. ’rortalnty rate of 60 per 1,000 hi r tils. ■519 deaths ocnui‘.red equivalent to ai provisional .death rate of 12.9 per 1^.000 of the population. The supervision of infants and young children has been'continued as in previous years and the child welfare-- v/ork has been closely co-ordinated with the school medical servjLce. .During the year 697 first visits were paid to infants and 3;685 subsequent visits paid to children under one year of age. 2,271 visits were paid to children 1-2 years and 2,903 to children f^ed 2-5 years, a total of 9,556 routine visits to the homes of children not ill attendance at school. The home visiting of infants is closely linked v/ith the attendance of mothers at the ws'''^are centre and mothers'are encouraged to attend the centre on the afternoon when the Health Visitor of their district is in attendance. The attendance at the Tnf'ani; ^'Veifare Centre has increased. 'On a large num.ber of occasions the attendance of mochers has exceeded 70 and on some occasions has exceeded lOOf The accommodation at the centre is insufficient 00 cone satisfoctorily v/..th such large numbers and the health v.^sitor is unable to give the attention desirable to many of the infants v/hen the numbers attending are so large. It has been decided to open the welfare centre on Tuesday morning each wee.k from 10.am. to 12 noon. Owing to the increacj-ng amount of clinic work the following up of cn.iidren in t.heir homes has shoTO a tendenc.y to ciecl.i.ne during recent years and, v/ith the increase in the numbo:^’ ci bbies born, the health visitors have been unable to follot^ up th.e babjes as closely as *is desirable^ particulari,y during poriods of epidemics of measles or whooping cougli. It lias been decided therefore to appoint an additional health visitor and divide the Borough into five distrj.cts, ea.cli health visitor under- taking the supervision of infa.nts and the school medical work in her area, in addition to carrying out duties in the various clinics-. The we]fare centre has been open on 209 occasions v.hen 661 nev/ children undter one year of age and 54 children over one ye'-.ir of gge attended. Of the 1,170 children who at tende>d the centi'e, 558 v/ere under one year of age at the eacl of the .year and 612 were over one year. The total attendances made by children during the year was 13,927 of //iiich 10,438 v/ere made b.y children under one .year of age- 2,63^1- by ohil.dren aged 1-2 years and 855 by ohildren r-ig..-d 2-5 .years. The average attendance at each session was 63 mot Per s . 50 children under one .year and 17 ap:ed one-five years. A med^^al officer was in attendance at. the cencre on 19h- session.s and made a total of 5,039 nations of ehjldren, 3,070 being of children under one year, l,h55 of children 1-2 years and 514 of children aged 2--5 years.