Heilbrigðisskýrslur - 01.12.1967, Page 178

1967
— 176 —
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 4227 infants
born during the year. Reports on the nutrition of infants were sub-
mitted in 3965 cases which accordingly were grouped as follows:
Breast-fed ............................. 88.37%
Breast- and bottle-fed................... 7.59—
Bottle-fed only .................. 4.04—
16. Health Officials and Auxiliary Personnel (cf. table I). The total
number of licensed medical men in Iceland was 381 at the end of the year
1967. There are 57 medical districts. The number of midwives holding
appointments is 95, while the number of districts is about 200. Trained
nurses do little service outside hospitals and institutions. Dentists are
too few (82 working in the whole country).
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 118000 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. The chemical analysis and bacteriological
investigations are done at the State Laboratories in Reykjavik.
19. Hospitals, large and small, in 1967 numbered 39 in the whole
country with 2153 beds, or 10.8 beds. per 1000 inhabitants, 29 of this
number being general hospitals, with 1258 beds (6.3 per 1000). In the
tuberculosis sanatoria there are 43 beds (about 0.2 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).
20. Immunization. Immunizations performed during the year are
shown in table XVIII.