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Shoreditch and Hammersmith, but I would draw attention tc
the low figures in boroughs where the inhabitants are living
under similar and worse conditions than Hammersmith,
notably Hackney, Battersea and Poplar.
The mortality figure for Hammersmith should at least
be not higher than that for the whole of London.
Reference to the table will show the marked decrease in
the mortality rates in London and the various boroughs as
compared with the figures of eighteen years ago.
This is largely due to improved sanitary conditions but,
in my opinion, it is principally due in the more recent years
to the intensive work carried out in some boroughs undei
various Maternity and Child Welfare Schemes, both voluntary
and municipal.
Where the fuller schemes are established even in boroughs
such as Hackney and Poplar, the mortality rate has dropped
in an extremely satisfactory way.
I have pointed out on several occasions that the staff
of Health Visitors is small and needs increasing to at least
double its present number.
The Borough has an acreage of 2,282 and this has to be
covered by your three Health Visitors, an area of 700 acres
per Health Visitor. It is impossible to work such a large
area efficiently. Too much time is wasted in walking from
house to house.
The number of births in Hammersmith last year was
2,701, of which 95 per cent. were visited. This is too large a
number, giving 900 to each Health Visitor; it being more than
double the number of births which the Ministry of Health
recommends as being a maximum for which one Health