London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

Lewisham 1953

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Lewisham Borough]

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13
Local sickness
Through the courtesy of the Regional Medical Officer of the
Ministry of National Insurance, I am sent weekly a return indicating for
the various areas of London the first certificates of sickness benefit
received in the local offices. The areas served by these local offices
are in the main coterminous with postal districts of London and do
not coincide with borough boundaries. Lewisham is served by four
offices, "Lewisham," "Downham," "Eltham" and "Norwood,"
but as only a very small portion of the borough comes within the
purview of the latter two, it is felt that a better representation of the
trend of sickness within the borough is given by quoting only the
figures for "Lewisham" and "Downham."

Table: Table 5

Table 5

Average of four weeks endingLewishamDownham
January 27761265
February 24 ...1189302
March 24578165
April 21407104
May 1936398
June 1629075
July 1430084
August 1127287
September 830981
October 6372104
November 3501142
December 1448134
December 2933990
Corresponding figure for November, 1952486134

Table: Social class in relation to cause of deathOf the 2,513 deaths analysed by us the social categories were as follow Table 6

Social class in relation to cause of death

Of the 2,513 deaths analysed by us the social categories were as follow Table 6

Social classIIIIIIIVVTotalNo information
Males41216716218107129817
Females2923462219066114157
Total704501338408173243974
Percentage31855177100-