[Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council.

  • Wiltshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1941
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    County, such as Bristol. One such course, however, was arranged early in 1941 at Swindon Victoria Hospital. Nine candidates completed the course, were admitted to the Mobile Register and posted to various hospitals. Another similar course is being arranged at the Devizes and District Hospital at the time of writing. Close touch is maintained with the Employment Exchanges throughout the county and every effort has been made in this and other ways to obtain as many recruits to the Reserve as possible. The numbers are, however, disappointingly small having regard to the needs of the Reserve and it would seem that eventually consideration may have to be given by the Ministries concerned to the question of the direction of women on registration to service in the Reserve. VENEREAL DISEASES. Although new civilian cases coming up for treatment at the Clinics numbered only 325, as com¬ pared with 391 in 1940, there was an increase of 34 new military cases as against 7 in 1940. In spite of what might have been anticipated in view of the very large new military population of the County, there was thus an actual falling off in the total new military and civilian cases to 359 as compared with 398 in the previous year. In order to deal with military cases, particularly those referred to us for follow-up, a special Clinic was opened at Swindon on March 5th, sessions being held on Wednesday afternoons, and this has proved of great value in simplifying the work. TUBERCULOSIS. Dr. D. F. Morgan, Assistant County Medical Officer, continued to act as Tuberculosis Officer, with assistance from Dr. Teeuwen, a temporary member of the staff, who attended at the Swindon Dispensary, Owing to the pressure of work at the Dispensaries, Dr. Knight was appointed an additional temporary Assistant Tuberculosis Officer in August, 1941, and attended the Trowbridge and Salisbury Clinics. These arrangements were continued until March, 1942, when Dr. Harper, County Tuberculosis Officer, was released from the Royal Air Force, and returned to duty. The total number of notifications in 1941 was 433, compared with 436 in 1940 and 355 in 1939. The last year for which notification was normal, viz. 1938, showed 293 notifications. The increase in the figures for 1939, 1940 and 1941, was due not to new cases, but to transfers of existing cases from other areas. During 1941, however, there was a slight increase in tuberdulosis amongst ordinary Wiltshire residents, the total number of primary notifications of residents being 289 compared with 277 in 1940, and in 1942 it seems probable that this increase will continue. The deaths from tuberculosis showed a considerable increase in 1941, numbering 183, 134 pul¬ monary and 49 non-pulmonar3c For the previous year the figures were 109 pulmonary and 28 non-pulmonary, total 137. The death rate from tuberculosis has risen during the year from 0.40 to 0.49 per 1,000 of the population. The number of cases of tuberculosis under supervision at the end of 1941 was 852, compared with 839 in the previous year, 750 in 1939, and 667 in 1938. I’he attendances at the Dispensaries showed a very large increase, the total being 3681, compared with 2943 in 1940, and 2491 in 1939. The attendances were roughly 50% higher than in pre-war years.