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achd 20/1/56 PB.
1
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, N.l.
To The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Islington.
In presenting my Fourteenth Annual Report on the health of the Metropolitan
Borough of Islington for the year ended 31st December, 1954, it is inevitable that I
refer to certain fundamental features affecting the Public Health which are more or
less constant and therefore have to be mentioned from year to year.
In particular, reference was made in the Report for the year 1953 to the
information published by the Registrar General in his County of London Report
analysing the 1951 Census Returns. The overall congestion of the Borough, with
an average of 76.2 persons per acre, has not materially altered and, in spite of the
considerable volume of new housing in the Borough built by the London County
Council and the Borough Council, the problem of out-of-date housing and the
reduction of congestion still remains a most intractible one.
The Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954, which came into effect during the
year, requires Local Authorities to survey their areas and within one year submit
proposals for dealing with slum clearance areas and individual unfit housing. It is
indeed unfortunate that, with such important new projects as this in addition to the
customary sanitary and environmental control which still has to be continued, the
position in regard to the Sanitary Inspector establishment should have remained so
unfavourable during the year. During the year the Department was substantially
short to the extent of 25 to 33 per cent. of the number of Inspectors required to carry
out work in the Borough. In spite of repeated advertisments, it was not possible
to fill the vacancies and great difficulties were thereby experienced in dealing
promptly, as they should be dealt with, with complaints of sanitary nuisances as
well as the carrying out of routine housing inspections. It is common knowledge
that there is a national deficiency of Sanitary Inspectors and it is regrettable that
such deficiency should inevitably affect adversely the health interests of the people.
In spite of certain adverse evironmental circumstances, there are, fortunately,
many favourable features to be recorded for the year. The infant mortality rate
reached the astonishing low figure of 17 deaths under the age of one year for every
1,000 live births. This is by far the lowest infantile mortality rate ever recorded in
the history of the Borough ; the previous lowest rate was 22 in 1952.
The general death-rate was also the lowest to be recorded, as can be seen from
the table of Comparative Vital Statistics on page 5. This was due in the main to a
decrease during the year in the number of deaths from the respiratory disorders,
influenza, pneumonia and bronchitis.
Whilst, in general, the incidence of infectious disease in 1954 was low, there
was an exceptional increase in dysentery. This was very prevalent in the Borough
during the year, with the highest number of cases which have occurred in any one