[Report 1935] / Medical Officer of Health, Huddersfield County Borough.

  • Huddersfield (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1935
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1935] / Medical Officer of Health, Huddersfield County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    46/126 (page 46)
    Seven cases of discharging eyes were reported by midwives on Form A during the period under review, 2 of which were subsequently notified as true Ophthalmia Neonatorum. There has been a welcome reduction in the number of cases of Ophthalmia Neonatorum notified in recent years, as shown b}^ the following table :— Year No. of cases notified 1926 28 1927 28 1928 22 1929 20 1930 18 1931 20 1932 14 1933 16 1934 14 1935 9 However welcome such a reduction may be, it is even more gratifying to be able to report that there has not been a case of any impairment of vision during the past seven years. Two young children who were completely blind were brought to notice during the year, but their impairment of vision was not in either case associated with Ophthalmia. In one case the blindness was a congenital defect, the child being born with mal-development of both eyes, whilst in the second case it resulted from a malignant growth which invaded both eyes and eventually caused the death of the child. Supervision of Midwives. Fifty midwives notified the Medical Officer of Health of their intention to practise midwifery in the Borough. Of the 50 19 were in private practice ; 22 were resident in institutions ; 9 were attached to the Queen Victoria Nurses’ Association. All midwives not resident in institutions are visited quarterly by an Assistant Medical Officer of Health when their bags, instru¬ ments, and records of cases are inspected. In addition, there is close co-operation between the midwives and the Assistant Medical Officers of Health in connection with their work. Some of the midwives attend the Central Clinic with their patients, but in any case, whether they attend or not, reports outlining the Medical Officers’ findings are always forwarded to the midwives who have notified the j)regnancies. The following official inspections were made during the year :— Midwives inspected . ... 28 Routine inspections ... ... ... 100 No official complaint regarding unsatisfactory work on the part of any of the midwives was made during the year.