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Tel. No. 01-385 1212 Old Town Hall,
Fulham Broadway,
S.W.6.
The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the May, 1968.
London Borough of Hammersmith.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health and
Director of Social Services of the London Borough of Hammersmith for the year 1966.
Introduction
This report has been compiled in accordance with the requirements of Ministry of Health
Circular No. 1/67. and refers to the year 1966. With the agreement of the Inner London Education
Authority a report on the School Health Service in the Borough during 1966, which has been
submitted to the Education Authority by your Medical Officer of Health in his capacity of Principal
School Medical Officer is included in this Annual Report. Similarly, since your Medical Officer
of Health in his capacity as Medical Officer of Health and Director of Social Services has responsibilities
in regard to the Welfare and Children's Services, reports on these services are also set
out. Certain of the Council's services have particular significance for the Social Services and
reports on the Public Cleansing Service, the Housing Service, the Baths and Laundry Service,
the Parks and Cemeteries Service, as well as the Library Service, are therefore also included.
Vital Statistics
Although there were the minor fluctuations which were to be expected, the vital statistics
of the Borough presented no special feature during the year. The gradual decline in the RegistrarGeneral's
estimate of the resident population of the Borough continued and was of the order of
some 1,500 persons.
Although there was, of course, an excess of births over deaths, the adjusted birth rate
followed the national trend and fell from 18.1 per 1,000 of the population in 1965 to 17.1 in 1966,
some two hundred and seventy-eight fewer children being born. A trend of this sort has significance
when such matters of provision of maternity services and family planning are being considered.
Some 15.6 per cent of the total births were illegitimate. The infant mortality rate was slightly
higher than the national figure, and whereas the stillbirth rate of 14.2 per 1,000 total live and
stillbirths was lower than the national figure of 15.4, the opposite was the case in regard to
neo-natal, particularly early neo-natal, mortality. The adjusted death rate per 1,000 of the population
was 12.6 as compared with 12.1 last year and 11.7 for England and Wales. The number of
deaths from cancer of the lung and bronchus rose from 177 in 1965 to 203 in 1966 indicating that
Hammersmith is sharing in the national upward trend of deaths from this condition. It is indeed a
tragedy that, at a time when the Council's activities in smoke control are having a beneficial
effect on the air in Hammersmith, figures of this order should result from the adverse atmosphere
which so many people create in their lungs by smoking cigarettes.
Dr. Stradling in the Annual Report of the Hammersmith Chest Clinic draws attention to
the fact that during 1966 the number of new patients suffering from lung cancer exceeded for the
first time those suffering from tuberculosis.
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