PUBLIC HEALTH IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22478, 12 August 1938, Page 11

PUBLIC HEALTH IN BRITAIN

STEADY IMPROVEMENT REPORTED ADVANCES MADE IN SLUM CLEARANCE (MITISB OFFICIAL WIRELISS.) RUGBY, August 10. In presenting the annual report of the Ministry of Health, the Minister. Mi Walter Elliot, claims that it shows a record of steady improvement in the health of the people. Referring to the national health campaign, the report states that the full effect cannot yet be assessed, though the figures of attendances at infant welfare centres and ante natal clinics already give indications of its value in bringing home to tnany thousands by means of leaflets, posters, films, and public meetings the scone and nature of the health services.

Statistics of the public health generally, show a maintenance of 01 an improvement on previous years’ figures. The maternal mortality rate in 1937 was 3.1 per 1000 births, the lowest figure ever recorded. The section, on public assistance records that the total cost of outrelief was £ 16,829.000, against £ 19.834,000 in the previous year.

The year 1937 showed a further great advance in the work of moving people from the slums, and new provision for the abatement of overcrowding and the improving of housing conditions for agricultural workers is also recorded. Since 1933 800.000 people have been moved from slums into new houses. Housing and Planning A property housing population of 227,190 persons was declared for clearance by the local authorities, who also built 77,944 new houses, of which 56,726 replaced slum dwellings. Interesting passages are devoted to the expansion of town and country planning. The acreage of land under planning control has increased by 1,750,000 acres to a total of 24.163.000 acres, representing nearly two-thirds of the total acreage of England and Wales. The importance and the extent of the work discharged under local government in Britain are shown by the figures regarding local finance given in the report. In 1935-36, the last period for which complete figures are available, local authorities collected £ 164,914,084 in rates, besides receiving £132,947,808 from Exchequer grants and £183,451,443 from other sources, such as trading undertakings and housing estates. During the same year they spent £470,884,559 on the revenue account.

New legislation had made available to boys and girls between 14 and 16 the medical benefits of the national health insurance, and it had pxovided a scheme of pensions for “black-coated workers” and . others outside the, scope of compulsory insurance.