[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Salford County Borough.

  • Salford (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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

    123/186 (page 114)
    Mental Deficiency. 1. Admitted to institutions. 6 2. Admitted to Place of Safety. — 3. Placed on “ Licence ” in the community . 2 4. Allowed Short Holiday Licence. 3 5. Renewal of “ Order of Guardianship . —• 6. Escape from licence and returned to the institution 7. Patients reported to the Authority by the Educa¬ tion Committee . 6 8. Awaiting admission to institution. 3 1 7 2 1 1 3 2 37 301 The number of visits and reports made from the 5th July to the 31st December is as follows :—• These figures include the whole of the Department. Visits. 1,127 Reports. 579 New case records completed . 184 AMBULANCE SERVICE. From the 1st January, 1948, up to and including the 4th July, 1948, the Ambulance Services for the City, both for emergency and infectious diseases purposes, were controlled by the Health Committee. The services were controlled and situated as follows :— (a) General Ambulance Service—by the Central Garage Department, on behalf of the Health Committee, at Buile Hill Park, where two ambulances were situated. (b) Infectious Diseases Service—-by the Health Department, at Lady well Plospital, where three ambulances were situated. (c) Accident, etc, Service. The Police Ambulance Service remained responsible for the following types of case :■— 1. Street accident cases. 2. Emergency cases in which there was a possibility that proceedings on criminal charge might follow or where there were reasonable grounds to believe that a death had not been due to natural causes. On 5th July, 1948, the National Health Service Act, 1946, laid upon Local Health Authorities a new duty, namely, “ to make provision for ensuring that ambulances and other means of transport are available, where necessary, for the conveyance of persons suffering from illness or mental deficiency, or expectant or nursing mothers, from places in their area, to places in or outside their area.” In Section 79 of the Act, illness is defined as including “ mental illness and any injury or disability requiring medical or dental treatment or nursing.” The new duty referred to other means of transport as well as to ambulances, and thus enabled the authority to provide cars for sitting cases. Two points of special importance relating to the new service are (1) that the service is to be free ; and (2) that the responsibility for providing a suitable vehicle rests upon the Local Health Authority in whose area the need arises.