Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health [to] the Corporation of the City of Capetown.

  • Cape Town (South Africa). City Health Department.
Date:
[1954]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health [to] the Corporation of the City of Capetown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/142 (page 25)
    Owing to the delay in filling staff vacancies and the overall shortage of staff, it was not possible to keep np with sub-visits and house to house visits in all areas of the Municipality during the year. The full complement of health visiting staff as at 30th June, 1954 s made up as follows:— Chief Health Visitor . . . . . . . . . . ] Deputy Chief Health Visitor . . . . . . 1 Supervisor of Midwives . . . . . . . . 1 Social Welfare Worker . . . . . . . . 1 Diphtheria Immunization Nurses . . . . . . 2 Orthopaedic Nurse . . . . . . . . . . 1 School Nurses . . . . . . . . . . 2 European Health Visitors . . . . . . . . 22 Malay Health Visitors . . . . . . . . 2 Coloured Health Visitors . . . . . . . . 7 African Health Visitors . . . . . . . . 3 Total . 43 Miss P. Store, was appointed chief health visitor on September 1st, 1953 and Miss B. Jennings was appointed to the post of assistant chief health visitor on May 1st, 1954. The following table shows the number of visits made during 1953-54 and previous years by the health visitors and the social welfare workers (including the visits made by the tuberculosis health visitors and the nurse visitors from the Venereal Diseases Branch). Classification of visits. Slumber of visits. 1953-54 1952-53 1951-52 1950-51 1949-50 1948-49 1947-48 1946-47 1945-46 1944-45 Visits to houses where births have occurred . . 15,454 15,548 14,930 14,773 14,725 14,758 14,667 14,622 13,339 13,168 Subsequent visits to houses where births have occurred 70,312 67,960 53,726 57,082 57,127 54,503 50,989 43,912 47,252 45,732 Visits to houses where deaths under 5 years of age have occurred 1,303 1,147 1,308 1,365 1,336 1,369 1,620 1,303 1,502 1,754 Visits to expectant mothers 1,841 1,851 2,184 2,426 2,612 2,795 2,912 2,890 2,820 2,773 Visits re protected in- I fants . . 2,483 2,624 2,322 2,059 2,024 2,097 2,778 3,029 3,486 3,434 Special follow-up visits 4,433 4,875 5,847 6,231 6,211 6,096 5,267 4,843 5,214 6,559 Visits to cases of tuber¬ culosis 22,307 25,052 25,705 24,087 21,609 20,500 21,006 19,018 17,352 17,115 Visits re cases of puer¬ peral fever Visits re measles 13 25 24 18 48 51 86 76 77 64 69 121 19 69 52 41 89 83 55 29 Visits re whooping cough 589 1,155 1,821 944 287 42 104 48 9 127 Visits re diarrhoea 48 27 80 83 85 60 45 29 83 115 Visits re chicken-pox . . 28 9 11 21 23 9 19 8 10 8 Visits re ophthalmia neonatorum . . 355 245 209 325 332 431 427 564 563’ 775 Visits re pneumonia 10 47 158 229 271 276 348 360 305 299 Visits re trachoma 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 5 6 5 Visits re influenza 1 — 2 1 1 1 —- 2 1 2 Visits re other diseases . . 9 3 18 23 18 76 154 81 121 79 Visits re diphtheria im¬ munization 779 874 897 1,197 1,340 1,115 1,025 2,150 2,830 3,882 Visits re diphtheria — 3 2 4 2 1 13 54 167 241 Visits re mid wives 785 697 613 560 615 796 625 560 962 1,247 Visits re schools 298 273 234 321 277 491 596 569 781 687 Visits to school children 2,169 3,319 3,034 4,061 1,129 756 900 870 740 449 Visits to shops and factories 211 228 302 312 370 229 209 410 572 523 Visits to nursing homes 14 8 3 4 139 88 92 114 151 123 Visits re verminous persons _. — — — 1 5 10 44 25 43 Visits re dental treat¬ ment .. 108 145 109 88 72 94 130 189 156 181 House-to-house visita¬ tions 7,089 7,566 7,634 8,386 7,700 7,312 6,350 5,884 6,042 6,465 Visits re venereal disease 1,885 3,671 5,769 7,172 7,236 7,169 7,808 8,876 8,071 7,195 Visits re prospective foster mothers 15 20 25 42 39 51 21 45 63 42 Visits re evacuees Visits to orthopaedic cases .. 2,183 2,229 2,053 2,774 2,913 3,588 3,502 3,341 3,302 15 2,241 Other visits 379 287 240 248 393 732 1,157 1,023 1,155 1,629 Visits by Social Welfare Investigator . . 1,904 2,409 1,954 2,286 2,294 2,630 2,114 1,515 1,631 1,968 Total visits .. 137,075 142,419 131,234 137,192 131,282 128,165 122,064 116,417 118,843 118,969 Complaints referred to Chief Health Inspector 7 10 16 32 31 43 21 19 44 80