London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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London County Council 1950

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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The nature of the calls answered with comparative figures for 1949 were:—

19491950Increase or decrease
Street accidents10,37912,287+ 1,908
Other accidents14,58816,761+ 2,173
Assault cases1,2161,395+ 179
Attempted suicide590739+ 149
Mental443541+ 98
Epilepsy1,3491,373+ 24
Other sudden illness14,15516,865+ 2,710
Maternity23,18723,788+ 601
Analgesis apparatus delivered to women being confined at home6,9726,311– 661
*Special cases220298+ 78
Ambulance not required4,2815,018+ 737
77,38085,376+ 7,996

*Including transfer of accident cases taken to hospital within previous 24 hours.

General Section Persons conveyed and mileage

PatientsOthersTotalMileage
1938217,908102,520320,4281,930,172
1947182,206129,599311,8051,768,550
1948239,157130,335369,4922,072,545
1949362,963189,468552,4312,808,550
1950480,048220,017700,0653,041,569

(ii) Agency and Supplementary Services
Except for the West Ham Ambulance Service which by agreement carries out
removals on behalf of the Council in those parts of the Borough of Woolwich north of
the river Thames, the following agency arrangements have been in force only since
5th July, 1948 (the " appointed day " under the National Health Service Act, 1946).

Comparative statistics for 1949 and 1950 were:—

19491950
Patients carriedMileagePatients carriedMileage
Home Service Ambulance Department9,557376,5647,966281,183
County of London Hospital Car Service107,6671,496,090144,6691,787,434
*City of London Police Ambulance Service8352,619
West Ham Ambulance Service1131,4682464,373
118,1721,876,741152,8812,072,990

* Agency terminated 5th July, 1949.
PREVENTION OF ILLNESS : CARE AND AFTER-CARE
Health education
The main health education effort continued to be that of the health visitors to
individual mothers and to small groups, either in the maternity and child welfare
centres or in the homes. More organised talks to larger groups in the centres were
arranged by several of the divisions and visual aids (films and film-strips) were used
to advantage.