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3
Public Health Departments,
98a, Avenue Road,
Hampstead, N. W. 3.
2nd May, 1962.
TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS
OF THE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF HAMPSTEAD.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report on the Health
of the Borough during 1961.
A disadvantage from which the public health service suffers
as compared with the curative medical services is that results are
almost invariably slow and unspectacular. In order to avoid
errors due to climatic or other variations it is usual to make comparisons
over 10, 20, 30 years or even longer periods and in the
control of communicable disease the greatest successes are when,
from the point of view of news, nothing happens.
In housing, the provision of new dwellings with all the amenities
which are now considered as necessities rather than luxuries,
gives some measure of the improvement, but against this must be
set the increasing obsolescence of the older houses and it is not
possible to give any precise measurement of the improvement on
balance.
Nevertheless there has been an improvement in the general
health of the population and the standard of living has continued to
rise.
An indication of the improvement in housing is the continuing
decrease in the number of complaints received of housing
defects. This is probably not because the number of defects arising
has fallen, but because both owners and occupiers are somewhat
more willing to remedy conditions without recourse to the Public
Health Department.