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DEPT 25
METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF DEPTFORD
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1940
Public Health Department,
Central Clinic,
Amersham Road,
S. E. 14.
30th November, 1941.
To The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my twelth Annual Report,
which is abridged so as to come within the limits prescribed by the
Ministry of Health.
During the early months of 1940, the Council's public
health services, which had been gradually resumed after the initial
dislocation consequent upon the outbreak of the war, were continued
albeit upon a reduced scale. Later in the year, with the onset
of bombing and the speed-up in evacuation, it was found necessary
to re-arrange much of the Maternity and Child Welfare service.
Infant Welfare Sessions were carried on as far as possible with a
staff depleted by reason of their Civil Defence duties, but Toddlers°
and Sunlight Clinics had to be abandoned. Only emergency visiting
could be carried out. The London County Council scheme for the
evacuation of expectant mothers was continued, the assembly point
for the Borough being the Central Clinic. Difficulties have been
experienced all the time in the evacuation of unaccompanied children
of pre-school age. The Babies' Hospital continued to do good work
during the first year of the war but with a reduced child population
and increasing difficulties in obtaining staff, the Hospital closed
in October. The members of the Council's Maternity Home staff who,
since the closing of the Maternity Home at the outbreak of war, had
been employed upon Civil Defence duties, were gradually replaced by
Nurses engaged for the purpose and were then transferred to Maternity
hospitals in reception areas.
I desire to record my appreciation of the able and willing
manner in which all members of the staff have carried out the duties
allotted to then - duties, in many cases, rendered much more, onerous
by reason of the reduction in the total number of staff. Anongst
those members of the staff absent from Deptford at the present time,
the following have joined His Majesty's Forces:- Messrs.G.B.Allen,
E.J,Elliott, D.X.Evans L.C. Southgate.
The following briefly records the sanitary circumstances
of the Borough in 1940:-
GENERAL DATA
Area of Borough 1,564 acres Comparative
figures for
Deptford London
Birth rate (per 1,000 living) 16.6 13.7
Still births (per 1,000 total births) 23
Death rate (per 1,000 living) 19.4 17.8
Infantile Mortality rate(deaths under
1 year per 1,000 births) 27 50