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
St Pancras 1933
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, Metropolitan Borough]
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The fact of still birth must be certified either by the Medical Practitioner or Midwife
who was in attendance, or who has examined the child, or by declaration in a prescribed form if
no Medical Practitioner or Midwife was present. If, in any of the last mentioned cases,
information is given by the Registrar to the Local Authority, the Minister of Health has
intimated that the Medical Officer of Health shall arrange for enquiries to be made in order
that he may be satisfied that the child was really still born and that there were no suspicious
circumstances attaching to the case.
In accordance with the instructions of the Ministry of Health, the following table is included which gives particulars, by sex and legitimacy, with reference to all still births registered in the Borough during the year:—
| Still Births Registered. | Inward Transfers. | Outward Transfers. | Still Births Allocated to the Borough. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Legitimate and Illegitimate | Males | 87 | 7 | 45 | 49 |
| Females | 89 | 1 | 51 | 39 | ||
| Illegitimate | Males | 8 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| Females | 11 | - | 4 | 7 | ||
Inward transfers relate to still births belonging to the Borough, but which took place in
some other area. Outward transfers refer to still births of non-residents, but which took
place in the Borough.
DEATHS.
The net number of St. Pancras deaths registered during the year was 2,608; equal to
an annual death rate of 13.7 per 1000 of population.
The corresponding rate for the previous year was 13.1 and the average yearly death
rate of the Borough for the previous five years was 13.3 per 1000 of population.
It should be noted that for the first time in the history of the Borough the death rate
was higher than the birth rate. For a number of years a decrease has been taking place in
both of these rates, with the result that the population now contains a larger proportion of
persons at the later years of life. As the death rate of these older persons is high, it may be
anticipated that in future years the death rate will tend to equal or to be consistently higher
than the birth rate, and to result, apart from immigration, in a stationary or decreasing
population.
The actual number of deaths registered as having taken place in the Borough during the
year was 3,102. This number has to be corrected by the exclusion of 1,032 deaths which
occurred in the Borough of persons who were not St. Pancras residents, and by the inclusion
of 538 deaths of residents which occurred and were registered outside the Borough.
The corrected figure is therefore 2,608 and is used in calculating the death rate in this
report.
In Table 1, on page 106, will be found details of the corresponding figures for previous
years.