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

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Greenwich 1896

Annual report for the year ending 25th March, 1897

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70
siderably exceeded the average rate in the ten years 1886-95,
which had been 0.41 per 1,000. The deaths from Diphtheria and
Croup together numbered 2,830, and were 538 above the average.
The local Mortality from Diphtheria is very seriously disturbed by
the existence of Hospitals in certain of the areas. In Hampstead,
for example, 250 deaths from Diphtheria were registered in 1896;
most of these occurred in the Metropolitan Asylums Board's
Hospital, to which the patients had been admitted from other
districts, and, after distribution of institution deaths, only 30 were
of persons belonging to Hampstead sanitary area. Similarly, in
Fulham sanitary area 200 deaths from Diphtheria were registered,
most of these being Hospital cases imported from outside districts,
and only 77 properly belonged to Fulham. Hackney, City of
London, Holborn, St. Olave, Wandsworth, Greenwich, and Lee
are also instances of sanitary areas whose registered Death Rates
from Diphtheria have been enormously increased by the presence
of Hospitals. On the other hand, Chelsea, Clerkenwell, St. Luke,
St. George-in-the-East, Mile End Old Town, St. Saviour (Southwark),
Bermondsey, Camberwell, Lewisham, and Woolwich, may
be mentioned as examples of the opposite kind, where the effect
of distribution has been to greatly increase the Diphtheria Death
Rates of those areas by the inclusion of deaths occurring in
Hospitals outside their own boundaries.
"Among London sanitary areas the lowest Death Rates from
Diphtheria, after distribution of institution deaths, were 0.09 in
St. James, Westminster, 0.12 in Strand, 0.18 in St. Giles, and 0.21
in Wandsworth; the highest rates were 0.83 in Limehouse, 0.84 in
Bermondsey, 0.86 in Mile End Old Town, 0.88 in Lewisham, 0.91
in Plumstead, 1.01 in Camberwell, and 1.17 in Chelsea.