[Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Prestatyn U.D.C.

  • Prestatyn (Wales). Urban District Council.
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Prestatyn U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I would again stress the need for scrupluous cleanliness and attendance to personal hygiene amongst all food handlers. A serious outbreak of food poisoning could do untold harm to a holiday resort. For the first time Prestatyn had a visit from the Mass Radiography unit of the Welsh Regional Board and 965 of the townspeople availed themselves of the facilities offered. This figure, 965, represents 11 % of the popu- lation and is a very satisfactory attendance figure when one considers that an influenza epidemic was widespread in the district at the time, I would point out here that a clean bill in 1951 does not exclude the possibility of chest trouble for ever after. Indeed it is advisable to have annual checks and I hope, with some grounds for believing that it may come to pass, that the visit of the Mass Radiography unit will become an annual event. Statistics As was to he expected owing to the high percentage of elderly people living in the town, our death rate was higher than the average for the country, and our birth rate lower than the average for the country. The Infant Mortality rate was 43 99 per 1,000 live births, as compared with 34.4 per 1,000 live births in 1950. The rate is still above that for England and Wales as a whole, which is 29.6 per 1.000 living births. All four infant deaths occured in hospital while undergoing treatment, two being due to prematurity, one to influenza and one to congenital defect. Elderly People and Elderly Sick People. Difficulty is experienced in finding hospital accommodation for the elderly chronic sick. This is a