[Report 1957] / Medical Officer of Health, Bebington Borough.

  • Bebington (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / Medical Officer of Health, Bebington Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/60 (page 3)
    THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS OF THE BOROUGH OF BEBINGTON. Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have pleasure in submitting the annual report for the year 1957. The tables of vital statistics at the beginning of this report bear careful scrutiny. Particularly noteworthy is the low infant mortality during the year. The rate of 13 is far and away the lowest and best ever achieved in this borough, compares very favourably with the best anywhere and is very much below the national average. This fgure is achieved by more than halving the number of deaths of infants under one month, from 13 in 1956 to 6 in 1957 and says much for the prenatal care and education by the general practitioners, hospitals and staff of the local health authority. This low infant mortality rate combined with a nil return for maternal deaths for the seventh successive year is an indication of the value of good preventative medicine. At the other end of the scale there is a marked increase in the number of deaths from cancer of the lung. Much has been said in the last few years about cigarette smoking and cancer of the lung and that it is an important factor is now well established but there are others, for example, the fumes from the internal combustion engine and smoke from chimneys, industrial and domestic. During the year, thanks largely to the co-opera- tion and help of the North Western Gas Board, preliminary efforts were made to make the Abbots Grange prefabricated bungalow estate smoke free. This estate, which consists of low roofed bungalows and is surrounded by trees, has been a bugbear to itself and its neighbours with its heavy smoke pall and it is to be hoped that when it is smoke free the benefits will become so obvious to the remainder of the citizens in the borough that they will insist on using smokeless fuel themselves. There is much conservative resistance to using these fuels and modern appliances which dissipates as by magic when they are properly and intelligently tried. This will be the last annual report with which Mr. Cropper will be associated as he retired in May this year. Since he joined the staff of what was then the Lower Bebington Urban District Council, forty-six years ago, he has seen and been instrumental in many changes which have benefited the health of the community. During the year the Health Committee agreed to appoint a student public health inspector. This method of recruitment has much to recom- mend it as apprenticeship is still the best method of learning any profession or trade under the guidance of the experienced man. I have pleasure in recording my thanks to the whole of the staff for their help and enthusiasm throughout the year and for their share in the work of compiling this report. F. S. MELVILLE, Medical Officer of Health Town Hall, Bebington. October, 1958.