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substantial contribution which the Council thus makes to the total
amount of available institutional maternity accommodation has,
despite war-time difficulties, enabled about three quarters of the
births during the year to take place in hospitals. To the women
affected, faced with a shortage of most peace-time conveniences and
with the alarms and excursions of war, these facilities have had
more thai a medical value, important as that alone would have been.
The public health facilities for infants have been equally well
appreciated and used. Nearly four thousand children under five, of
whom more than sixteen hundred were, under one, were brought to the
clinics on occasions which aggregate to over thirty-two thousand
(more than in any pre-war year).
The Babies' Hospital, handicapped even more than the other
services, has also continued its unobtrusive and life-saving work.
68 cases were admitted of which four proved fatal. It is safe to
say that without the painstaking and inspired nursing which these
infants receive many more would have died. The work in this
hospital is perhaps the least spectacular, but the most laborious
of any undertaken by the health department staffs.
The remaining preventive medicine activity to which I would
briefly draw the attention of the Council is that of immunisation
against diphtheria. This began in 1934 but during the last three
years received more concentrated attention. At the present time,
more than 60% of the children under five and about 75$ of children
of school age are immunised. From 1900 to 1934 the highest number
of cases of diphtheria notified yearly was 644 (1901) and the
lowest 271 (1915) On the average in every ten days in the year,
nine notifications of diphtheria were received. For the years 1940
onwards, the annual notifications have been 63, 64, 55 43
(almost one a week) and the annual deaths for the same four years
were 1, 2, 3 and 2 respectively. The causal relationship between
the immunisation campaign and the altered incidence of the disease
seems beyond question. It would be striking at any time but in
the intermittently crowded conditions which accompany life in an
urban community liable to aerial bombardment, conditions which
predispose to the easy spread of droplet borne infection such as
diphtheria, it is even more striking.
It would not be fitting to conclude this brief note on a few
of the more interesting aspects of the health of the borough
without expressing my grateful thanks for the loyal support of an
enthusiastic staff and for the sympa the tic understanding invariably
accorded by my Chairman and their Committees. Both have worked
under difficulties. To certain sections of the staff, particularly
the Sanitary Inspectors, those difficulties have meant an inevitable
slowing down of their work, but they have invariably been met by
everyone, Committee and staff alike, with tolerance, good humour
and ingenuity.
I have the honour to be,
Mr. Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
J, A. Scott
O.B.E.,M.D.,M.R.C.S.,L.R.C.P.,D.P.H.,
Medical Officer of Health.
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