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8
PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
TOWN HALL, GREENWICH, S.E.10.
To The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On the 31st March, the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich
ceased to exist and this report for 1964 will, therefore, be the last
to cover the health and environmental circumstances of the borough.
After an existence of 65 years it is understandable that the dissolution
of the borough should occasion regret and a certain sadness,
for this tumultuous century has seen greater improvements both
locally and nationally in almost every field of human endeavour
than occurred from the Middle Ages to the end of Queen Victoria's
reign. Scientific medicine has emerged from processes which were
little more than superstitious cults, and the social causes and
consequences of disease and deviations from the accepted norm are
now being studied in an informed and systematic way. A review
of all the progress which has come about since the turn of the
century would necessitate a vast canvas but, in the body of this
report, an attempt has been made to give some account of the
work of the Health Department as it has evolved and been shaped
by events, by officers and by many enlightened citizens who have
been elected over the years to serve the borough. It would be
unfitting if, in this last report, a grateful acknowledgement was not
made to our predecessors who, in vastly different circumstances
and under the handicap of the restricted knowledge of their time,
took far reaching decisions which were based more on a broad
spirit of compassion and on a determination to improve matters
rather than on cold objective reasoning. I would commend to the
readers attention the survey included in the report of the great
advances which have been made in the borough in the realms of
prevention of illness and disease and the vast improvements in
environmental circumstances and in the ideas and techniques of
sociology.
To return to the year under review, there has been a slight
decrease in population and, although births have increased, the
birthrate at 16.78 is below both the figure for London and the
national average. The infant mortality rate shows a great increase
over last year's low figure and, in previous reports, I have commented
on the wide fluctuations in this rate over the years and
there is nothing to add. Nevertheless, it should be noted that there
was an increase of 23 perinatal deaths last year and an analysis