[Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Rothbury R.D.C.

  • Rothbury (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1953
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Rothbury R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    2/2
    Sewerage: The conversion of the 30 privies at Emblcton Terrace has now been carried out* One grant of financial assistance was given to a private owner for privy conversion. No starting date has yet been given for the sewage disposal scheme at Whittingham and Longframlington Housing: During the year IQ houses- were built by the Council and. 7 by private owners. Advantage of financial assistance towards improvements of houses under the Housing Act of 1949 was taken in r'/n _ „ 1 • __i_ _ -1 - • > 1 . ■ . „ - ~ we v — •*-*'-*•*' *» ‘ .aw xx JO cases making a total of 68 since the inception of the scheme.There is still and steps tcady demand for houses in various parts of the district are being taken to acquire the necessary sites. Hotels and. Public Houses made of tho■t oi1e t f aci1itic; drawn to deficiencies and improvements required. COHl.rCHTS: With your Medical Officer an inspection wo of ail the premises and owners attention Tear The Cor onation point of view. It oanc of 1953 wo not a success from the weather in like a lion and continued in that role until the last two or three months of the year when it tried to make some amends. Lord Dyron1s idea of English weather was nearly confirmed when he said in one of his poems the English-winter ending in July to recommence in August but it did not affect the public health in this district. She, .outstanding fcaturc of this report is the increasing number Vo ri TO r~\ VO Tf ~P Jr la Oi tv* *4* -v-i r\ A “1 1 T-r — , m XI m ^ _n 01 • _ r\ « « ! c? ox deaths, many of them tragically sudden, due to diseases of the heart and blood vessels; an increase of }.0 on 1952 figures, or a share of 47 out of a total of 79. frequently all the deaths registered in the four weeks are due to thdsdi disease. How true it is that a nan is r old q,3 his arteries. There is no doubt that the worry and stress of tme war years has had something to do with this in.crcasc but the 9 yesu s of so called peace has done nothing to reduce it. Again the span of human life is increasing and more persons o,re living to an n ern wnen diseases of this nature are most co i.ii ..to n • Infcctious Discas_os notified show skx±K]sxess32 a decrease of 97. This very considerable fall in numbers is due firstly to the fact that we h n j.i.0 epidemic in 1953 ana secondly to the fact that mow drugs chici Penicillin have largely got control in the treatment of many of the common infections diseases* Pneumonia,scarlet fever, erysipelas and others arc not rgcarded with the seriousness of former tines. Diphtheric has r.ot been he ,rd ox a.or more then 10 years thanks to immunisation which I an glad to say has been consistently practised in this District Measles and Whooping Cough arc still troublesome and will be~until a preventative vaccine is discovered. THe^oanepr figure (12) is one more than in 1952 and our annual (n crage -Oj. bjic l«.-s c ten years is now between 9 and 10. Early diagnosis is of the utmos c i'apor canoe so that in suitable causes surgical treatment nay bo applied before secondary deposits occur in other organs* The single Tuberculosis ease notified for 1953 is very aatisfactor\ and much below our average for the last ton years namely 7.2,- Here again the success of the treatment depends almost entirely on early diagnosis and the onset is very insidious. In conclusion I would say that I think the public health of the district was distinctly improved in the last twenty five years or so c:nd that improvement is largely due to the Dentistrs work. I oan easilv i ^ call the tine when py Jrrhao a (-septic gums) wins wide-spread in this oisti ice. In those days with nor resident dentist in the district and ne buses on the; road io was a difficult and costly arrangement to visit dentisti s surgery, and so allowed to run its course. the poisonous condition. of tin mouth wax And now it is rare to hear of - a septic s ala; teeth, thanks largely to the dentist’s forceps. In my green and nays 1 was frequently requested to extract a tooth,and I think I must have done the operation thoroughly as no oat lent ever returned with a similar request. I think the patients must have felt (in the litoral sense of the word) that they hail had quite sufficient for' the fee they paid - one shilling; per tooth. Signed A.S. HE DIET.