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The infantile mortality rate, which is set out 011 page 15, was 19 per
1,000 live births in 1950. The figure for 1949 was 9.19 (the lowest figure
yet recorded in this district); that for England and Wales for 1950
being 29.8.
The actual number of deaths upon which these statistics are based
is relatively small. In 1949 there were 4 infantile deaths, as compared
with 8 during the year under review. On page 16 of the report, an analysis
of the causes of death of these infants is set out, and to show the advance
in the care of mothers and young infants, a comparative summary is
set out for a typical pre-war year, 1937. It will be noticed from a perusal
of these two tables that there was only one death in a child over one
week old in 1950, as compared with 5 in 1937. Both tables make it clear
that the first week of life is the most dangerous for infants, prematurity
and difficult labour still being the principal causes of neonatal mortality.
It will be noted that the death rate shows a slight upward tendency,
most of the deaths occurring in old or very old people. There was a
considerable increase during the early months of the year in general
ill-health, the incidence of respiratory diseases being particularly high.
In the very aged, with already failing heart conditions, respiratory infections
tend to be fatal, and this to some extent explains the increased death
rate. There was also, amongst persons past middle age, an increase
of the number dying from cerebral haemorrhage (stroke).
The care of the aged, in the absence of adequate institutional accommodation,
tends to present an ever-growing and very urgent problem.
Many old persons suffering from a chronic disease, which in pre-war
days would have ensured their admission to an institution (hospital,
old people's home or hostel), have now to stay at home with inadequate
nursing and general care. The home help service, within the limits set
by the County Council's estimates, provides one means of ensuring
the general maintenance of the home for these old persons, and the
District Nurses endeavour to provide essential nursing. Those, however,
whose duty entails visiting these old persons, understand full well that
the care given is not comparable with the nursing and attention which
can be provided in an old people's home or hostel.
Much difficulty is experienced in endeavouring to classify these
patients, some having diseases and degrees of ill-health requiring nursing
in the acute wards of a hospital, while others are the typical chronic
case seen in institutions maintained by Welfare Authorities. The Regional
Hospital Board takes charge of the first-mentioned type of patient, and
the County Welfare Authority makes provision for the second class.
The problem which faces the Regional Hospital Board is that every
old person admitted to the acute wards, whether surgical or medical,
deprives a young active person, possibly amongst the workers, of a muchneeded
bed, and thus delays the cure and rehabilitation of a person in
the younger age groups, upon whose earning capacity the Government
so urgently relies.
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