London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1970
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
Continued from previous page...
| Cases visited by Health Visitors | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1969 | ||
| Children born between 1965 and 1970 | 16,278 | (18,048) |
| Persons over 65 | 220 | (265) |
| Mentally disordered persons | 150 | (106) |
| Persons (excluding maternity cases) discharged from Hospitals (other than mental hospitals) | 229 | (236) |
| T.B. Households | 37 | (58) |
| Households visited on account of other infectious illnesses | 659 | (800) |
| Other cases | 3,313 | (2,697) |
| Effective visits | 51,344 | (47,775) |
| Ineffective visits | 14,614 | (12,989) |
The health visitors are constantly on the alert to ensure new needs of families are met.
STUDENT TRAINING
Eight health visitor students were sponsored for training by the Borough and all were successful in their
examinations. Five health visitor students from other boroughs were given practical training in Islington.
FIRE CASES
The follow-up by health visitors of fire cases continued. This involved a great deal of home visiting of the families concerned for advice and health education.
| Fires notified | 71 |
| Fatalities | 4 (5%) |
| Fires involving fatalities | 2 |
| Children involved | 4 (in 2 fires) |
| Injuries | 24 (34%) |
| Fires involving injuries | 16 |
| Fires involving oil heaters | 21 (30%) |
The number of domiciliary births continued to decline, falling to a total of 155 in 1970, compared with 254 in 1969.
In addition to the 155 home confinements, 100 other patients were booked for domiciliary confinement but subsequently transferred to hospital for the following reasons:
| Complications of pregnancy | 53 |
| Premature labour | 4 |
| In labour at term | 21 |
| Moved out of area | 22 |
The planned early discharge scheme resulted in 435 assessments of home conditions being made; 113
homes were found to be unsuitable.
435 patients (including unplanned early discharges) were nursed at home following hospital delivery.
68 patients originally booked for home confinement but who were delivered in hospital were
subsequently discharged for home nursing (giving a total of 503 hospital discharges).
93