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Town Hall,
Hammersmith, W.6.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,—I have much
pleasure in introducing my annual report for 1949. It is
presented in two parts—the first in the form of a commentary
and the second, statistical tables. This is quite a new feature
and one which, I feel, will make the report more readable.
1949 was, of course, the first complete year of the new
National Health Service, and is therefore the first complete
year of the new regime.
Our link with the Health Department of the Borough of
Fulham became even closer, and Dr. Mary Irene Adams, our
Deputy Medical Officer of Health, was appointed, in addition,
Deputy Medical Officer of Health to the Metropolitan Borough
of Fulham.
It is with much regret that I have to record the sad death
of Dr. Harry Smith, the Divisional Medical Officer for this
part of London. Nobody could have been more helpful, and
his premature demise was a severe loss to the County Council's
Health Services. These, however, maintain very happy
working liaison with the Borough Council's Health Department,
and we all welcome the appointment of Dr. Violet Russell as
Divisional Medical Officer in December.
Perhaps the most undesirable feature of the year was the
severe national epidemic of acute poliomyelitis. A review of
the occurrence of cases in the Borough has been made and
reveals that more than half of the total number came from
that part of Hammersmith where the best housing conditions
exist. Furthermore, the next highest total originates from the
second best housing area, total percentage from both being
85 per cent. On the other hand, the worst housed area, whose
population is about a quarter of the total, only produced one
eighth of the 39 cases that we had. It is therefore true to say
that more cases have come from the better housed area, and
least from the worst.
Though, perhaps, conclusions should be conservative, this
distribution is in line with the theory that the infection is
almost universal, in infancy, but unnoticed. In conjested,
badly housed, areas the infection presumably has easy access
to all young children, and it is only those who avoid it that are
likely to suffer severely later on in life, should they be infected.
The ability of recovery of muscle power in the child, of course,
becomes less as age advances.
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