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To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Battersea.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I beg herewith to present to you the Annual Report on the health
and sanitary conditions of the Borough for the year 1952. Many matters
touching the health of the people of Battersea are dealt with fully in
the Report and here all I need do is to indicate generally some of
the more interesting or important details.
The population showed a slight decline over the previous year.
The birth rate continued the decline which has been noted since the
termination of the war, while the death rate also was slightly less than
the previous year although a little above that for 1950. There was
quite a remarkable drop in the infant mortality rate from 27 to 17
infant deaths per thousand live births. This is the lowest infant mortality
rate ever recorded in Battersea, and I think it reflects every credit on
the many agencies at work in the Borough concerned with the health
and welfare of infants. Even greater efforts will be required to reduce
the rate still further and this emphasises the need for an ever increasing
effort in the realms of child health. Unfortunately, the still-birth rate
was rather above that of the previous year although below that for 1950.
There were three deaths from causes relating to child-birth.
Infectious diseases did not provide us with any serious problems.
The total number of notifications was considerably less than in the
previous year, due in the main to a drop in the number of notifications
of measles and whooping cough. Fourteen confirmed cases of
Poliomyelitis occurred, but of these fortunately six were of the nonparalytic
type. I am very sorry to have to report that the only case of
Diphtheria which occurred in the Borough was a fatal case. The child
had not been immunised against Diphtheria. The lesson to be learnt
from this unfortunate case is that we cannot and must not relax our
efforts to maintain the high proportion of children immunised against
what still remains a dread disease.
The Department continued to give special attention to the prevention
of food poisoning and the supervision of catering establishments,
and a good deal of work was again put in at the Festival Gardens,
regular visits being made by Food Inspectors and periodic visits by
your Medical Officers. Every facility and courtesy was received from
the Festival Gardens Authorities and the caterers themselves.
One of the more urgent problems in public health and sociology
is the welfare of old people. We have tried to pay particular attention
to this very important matter over and above our statutory obligations
and you will find in the body of the Report a short summary of what
we are trying to do in the way of assisting and co-ordinating the many
voluntary bodies in the Borough which themselves are doing such
excellent work in this sphere.
1952 was the first complete year in which the new and somewhat
novel arrangements for health administration in Battersea were in
operation. I refer, of course, to the arrangements by which the Medical
Officer of Health of Battersea is also Medical Officer of Health of the
adjoining Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth and Divisional Medical