[Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Radnorshire County Council.

  • Radnorshire (Wales). County Council.
Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Radnorshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/76 (page 8)
    1972 ANNUAL REPORT To the Chairman and Members of the Radnorshire County Council and Education Committee I have the honour to submit to you my report on the health services of the county and of the health of the people of this county in 1972. This will be my last annual report and indeed the last report of a Medical Officer of Health for Radnorshire, as both the post of Medical Officer of Health and the County Council of Radnorshire will disappear on the 1st April, 197^. It has been fascinating to read the annual reports of my predecessors, the earliest one available being that of Dr* Lawrence Pole in 1910* Perusal of this reveals the tremendous advances made in public health and in health services since this time* In those days many diseases which are rarely or never seen now were rife and very serious problems. For example, in Radnorshire in 1910, there were five deaths from diphtheria and forty two people died from tuberculosis. Yet there have been no deaths from diphtheria here since 19^7 and no-one has died from tuberculosis during the last two years. Some of this reduction in mortality can be explained by the higher economic status of people generally and better social conditions nowadays* but a not inconsiderable credit for the improvement must go to the health services and particularly the services of those engaged in preventive medicine, that is, mainly, the staffs of the local authority health departments. Perusal of the vital statistics for 1972 gives some grounds for satisfaction. Our infant mortality rate and perinatal mortality rate were again very low, and much lower than the rates for England and Wales* These rates are generally considered to be a good index of the health and the health services of a community. For the twelfth year in succession no mother died from causes associated with childbirth and we had no stillbirths. But the Radnorshire birth rate was lower, and the death rate higher than the rates for the country generally, and this is a reflection of rural depopulation, young people continuing to leave this area for other parts of the country where opportunities for employment are more favourable. Smoking, particularly cigarette smoking, has been described as the biggest single cause of preventible deaths. This killed nine people in the county last year and was the seventh commonest pause of death. In the country generally smoking kills as many from chronic bronchitis as from cancer. k0% of cancer deaths in men now result from smoking. When will central government take firm action, instead of its present pathetically feeble efforts to counteract this dangerous and filthy habit? Any loss of revenue from tobacco would be offset to a considerable extent, perhaps completely, first by the saving in hospital and other health service costs required to treat the end results of smoking, and also by the saving of time lost in industry by men from the effects of their smoking habits. As a first step a massive anti-smoking publicity campaign could be financed