Heilbrigðisskýrslur - 01.12.1964, Blaðsíða 168
1964
— 166 —
15. Care of Infants may be said to be fairly good, the great majority
of the children being breast-fed at least for the first weeks. The mid-
wives have made out a report (table XIII) concerning 4707 infants
born during the year. Reports on the nutrition of infants were submit-
ted in 4573 cases which accordingly were grouped as follows:
Breast-fed ............................ 78.13%
Breast- and bottle-fed ............ 16.64—
Bottle-fed only ................... 5.23—
16. Health Officials and Auxiliary Personnel (cf. table I). The total
number of licensed medical men in Iceland was 353 at the end of the year
1964. There are 57 medical districts. The number of midwives holding
appointments is 115, while the number of districts is about 200. Trained
nurses do little service outside hospitals and institutions. Dentists are
too few (67 working in the whole country). Trained dispensing chemists
are only in the larger towns, in villages and in the country the district
medical officers have a small drug store.
17. General Insurance. The National Insurance Act of 1936 (amend-
ed several times) covers besides diseases: accident, disablement and
old age insurance, sickness insurance being obligatory for the whole
country since 1 October 1951. At the end of the year 110277 persons
were registered insured under the National Insurance Act, organized
in 223 sicknessbenefit societies, children under 16 years being insured
with their parents or foster-parents.
18. Food and Nutrition. Public inspection of food has taken place in
this country since 1936, when the Food Adulteration Act came into
force. This Act provides for comprehensive control of all articles of
food and other nutrients. This inspection is in the hands of the district
medical officers of health and the sanitary committees, in co-opera-
tion with the local police authorities. The chemical analysis work is
done at the public Chemical Analysis Institute in Reykjavik.
19. Hospitals, large and small, in 1964 numbered 41 in the whole
country with 2089 beds, or 11.0 beds per 1000 inhabitants, 29 of this
number being general hospitals, with 1182 beds (6.2 per 1000). In the
tuberculosis sanatoria there are 71 beds (about 0.4 per 1000). Of other
special hospitals may be mentioned: 2 mental hospitals and 1 lepro-
sarium. The hospitalization days in all hospitals amounted to 3.9 per
head for the whole population (cf. also table XVII).