Medical Officers of Health records

The annual reports of county and burgh medical officers of health comprise one of the most frequently used sources of information relating to health, disease and social conditions in Scotland from the late 19th century until the early 1970s. The last reports by most authorities were for 1972 (the health service changes on 1 April 1974 meant that there was not enough time to produce reports for 1973, the last full year of the medical officers of health). The annual reports contain information (especially statistical information) about births, deaths, infant mortality, prevention and notification of infectious diseases, the distribution of population, industries, offensive trades, working class housing, water supply, river pollution and the provision of some local hospitals and health services. All sorts of researchers use them, such as school pupils undertaking research on disease, public health and living conditions in their local area, local historians, academic social historians, and researchers into the history of medicine and health. The annual reports do not mention individual patients by name.

Annual reports were made to the Local Government Board for Scotland and to the local authorities in the county or burgh involved. These have ended up, respectively in the National Records of Scotland, local authority archives, health service archives, reference and local studies libraries and university libraries. It is unusual to find a complete run of annual reports for a particular county or burgh in one archive or library. The National Records of Scotland hold runs of annual reports from 1891 to 1972 for counties and burghs (in the Home & Health Department records, HH62, HH63 and HH72), but there are gaps for certain years for certain counties and burghs. In some cases, this is because a particular county or burgh may not have produced a formal report for certain years: for example, Aberdeen County made no formal report after 1958 but did make the necessary statistical returns to the Scottish Home and Health Department.

Local authority archives or health board archives often hold incomplete runs of annual reports for counties and burghs in their areas and may hold other surviving records of medical officers of health.

The Wellcome Collection has digitised reports of Medical Officers of Health for some burghs and counties in Scotland. <https://wellcomecollection.org/collections > [accessed 26 April 2024]

Contributors: Fiona Watson (Northern Health Services Archive 2002), Andrew Jackson, Jo Peattie, Robin Urquhart (all SCAN 2002).