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6
The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Metropolitan
Borough of Bethnal Green.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the
state of the Public Health in the Borough for the year 1946
in an abridged form.
In spite of continued rationing of food and inadequate
housing, the standard of health generally has remained satisfactory.
In many women, however, who have the responsibilities
of the care of large families, there is evidence of a
lack of well-being which is no doubt associated with the
the worries of catering and the lack of a reasonable standard
of housing.
The vital statistics compare favourably with the national
figures and are shown in the table on page 11. In a
district such as Bethnal Green the Infant Mortality rate of
41.3 is remarkably low compared with the pre-war years
and an interesting graph showing the fall from 150.0 in the
early part of the century to the present level has been prepared
and is shown on page 10. It is to be hoped that
with improved environmental conditions, a higher educational
standard of parental teaching and earlier treatment that
further improvement in future years will take place. The
Birth rate of 22.6 is the highest since 1924 and has accentuated
the acute shortage of midwives and of maternity bed
accommodation. Unsatisfactory homes, due mainly to
overcrowding and the lack of amenities, has resulted in a
a further call for hospital beds by women for their confinements,
which in times of reasonable facilities would have
been conducted in the patients' own homes.