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2
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report on the work of
the Public Health Department for the year 1954.
The year has been uneventful but I believe that the general health
of the inhabitants has continued to improve and there was no serious
outbreak of infectious disease.
The birth rate was 19.7, a slight rise on that for the preceding
years, and the death rate 8.85, the lowest on record.
Unfortunately I have to report the first Maternal death since 1949
which makes the rate for this year 1.4: although this is a high figure
the rate if averaged over the other years is satisfactory.
It is also unfortunate that the Infant Mortality rate rose from
between 16 and 22 for the last 4 years well below the national rate to
30, which is slightly above the national rate. This was entirely due to
an increase in the number of deaths of infants under one week and is
to some extent set off by a remarkable decrease in the stillbirth rate
from about 20 to 10. Nevertheless, it cannot be disregarded
altogether.
The aged have continued to receive the very sympathetic
consideration which has been given to them by your Council and by
voluntary bodies in the last few years and the various schemes
designed to help in their care and wellbeing and to maintain their
health have been extended. A new work centre constructed as a
result of generous benefactions ideally suited to the purpose of helping
a hundred or more elderly persons to preserve their mental and
physical health by enabling them to continue in a modified manner
their part in the life of the community, was opened by Lord Horder
on November 11th.