[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council.

  • Somerset Council
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/84 (page 20)
    Some 20 dental centres are needed in Older to cover adequately the County area and so far there are only 4 properly fitted centres, and 4 temporarily equipped clinics. During the year there have also been coi^siderable dilficulties with regard to dental personnel. In 1948 there were 11 staff changes with an average of 13 dental c fficers, whereas 19 were required in order to pro¬ vide an adequate service. It is hoped that when staffing difficulties have been overcome and appropriate dental centres i^rovided, the scheme will be able to develop fully along the lines indicated in the proposals. The table set out below shows the figures for ius])ection and treatment of expectant and nursing mothers given during the yeai', and whilst they are an improvenieut ovei’ any previous figures, they are unfortunately only very small comjjared to the need and actual demand for this service. Number inspected ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 606 Number receiving treatment ... ... ... ... ... ... 449 Number of attendances for treatment ... ... ... ... 1,492 Number of extractions ... ... ... ... ... ... 1,363 Number of general aneesthetics administered ... ... ... 215 Number of teeth filled ... ... ... ... ... ... 429 Number, of scalings ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 184 Number of dentures supplied ... ... ... ... ... 120 Number of repairs to dentures ... ... ... ... ... 9 In addition to the above, a small number of mothers have received special treatment at the Musgrove Centre. As will be seen, the number of mothers seen in 1948 was 606 which com¬ pares favourably with 219 in 1946. This is a very small proportion of the optimum but the alternative method of securing treatment from a private dentist under the National Health Service is available to all patients. It is regretted that the prospects for the future are still clouded by this staffing difficulty and that the Authority is still very far from giving the priority service with its guaranteed treat¬ ment for expectant and nursing mothers and young children, which it is under obligation to provide under the Act. Premature Infants. The premature births in the County for the year 1948 were 176, of which 104 were admitted to Hospital Premature Infant Units. The infant mortality rate of premature infants is very high accounting for a large proportion of the total deaths of infants under 1 year. It is necessary, therefore, to introduce special measures for their care. As a general principle efforts are made to admit every case of premature labour to hospital for confinement but in practice this is often not possible either because of geographical difficulty or lack of hospital accommodation. For those premature infants who remain at home, one of the Area Assistant Nursing Superintendents, with special experience in this work, visits the home for the purpose of ascer¬ taining that essential equipment and adequate facilities are available and fo advise on details of nursing. Where necessary, additional equipment is loaned to the household.