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CAM 28
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Camberwell, S.E.5.
23rd December, 1940.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
of the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell.
Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
For reasons which I am sure will be readily understood it has not been
possible to prepare a report on customary lines upon the health of the
Borough for the year 1939. Indeed, the Ministry of Health, realising the
increasing pressure of work in Public Health Departments resulting from
the war, issued a further circular on the subject of the preparation of
Annual Reports of Medical Officers of Health in which it was suggested
that the report for 1939 only be an interim report, typewritten if
desired, and confined to essential and urgent matters affecting the Public
Health during the year.
For many months before the outbreak of war the activities of the
D e partment were divided between the performance of duties normally undertaken
and those of a war-time character. In this latter group fell such
duties as the training of Civil Defence Volunteers in anti-gas measures
and first aid, the selection, adaptation and equipping of premises for
use as Stretcher Party Depots and First Aid Posts.
When war was declared on September 3rd, 1940, practically the whole
of the staff of the Department were allocated to Civil Defence duties -
the Sanitary Inspectors acting as Superintendents of Stretcher Party
Depots and the Municipal Health Visitors and the female Sanitary Inspector
as Nurses in Charge of First Aid Posts.
These staff arrangements continued until the end of the year when it
became necessary, in view of the drift back of families from reception
areas, to re-open some of the Infant Welfare Centres and to arrange for
the return of the Health Visitors to their normal duties. The arrears
of work in the sanitary districts also compelled attention to the question
of appointing Superintendents of Stretcher Party Depots so as to enable
the Sanitary Inspectors engaged in these duties to be released.
The estimated resident population of Camberwell at the middle of 1938
was 222,400. The Registrar-General has furnished the following figures
for statistical purposes for the year 1939 upon which information the
birth and death rates in this report have been calculated :-
Estimated population (a) for birth rate 219,500 (b) for death rate 208,500.
The comparative birth and death rates for 1938 and 1939 are as follows:
1938 .
1939.
Birth Rate 13.97 13.85
Death Rate 12.27 12.43
It has always been my P ractice in the Annual Report on the health of
the Borough to express my indebtedness to the Staff for their valuable help
in the administration of the health services. For their work during 1939,
which bore little or no resemblance to the tasks normally undertaken, I
cannot speak too highly; the whole Staff were frequently called upon to
work long hours and at week-ends which they did without even a suspicion
of a grumble. I accordingly take this opportunity of tendering to them my
sincere thanks for their excellent services throughout the year, particularly
during that Period of the change-over from peace to war-time conditions.
I also wish to express my thanks to the Members of the Council
especially the Members of the Emergency Committee and the A.R.P.Controller,
for their kind consideration and support in all matters relating to the
discharge of the duties of my appointment as Medical Officer of Health.
Your obedient Servant,
H.W. Barnes.
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.