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To the Mayor. Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you the 98th Annual Report
upon the health of the Borough of Lambeth. The health of the
population has been satisfactory as will be seen from the
statistics which appear in the report. The population has been
estimated by the Registrar General to be nearly three thousand
less than that of 1953 at 226,200. The birth rate is slightly
higher at 14.33 and the death rate slightly lower at 10.26 per
thousand population as adjusted by the comparability factor,
both being lower than corresponding rates for the county and
also lower than those for England and Wales as well.
For the first time since 1938 new dwellings numbered more
than a thousand completed in one year. The actual number was
1,124 compared with 790 in 1953 and 1,951 in 1938.
The problem of the infirm aged is assuming larger proportions
each year as the expectation of life increases with more and
more elderly people becoming a burden to others. Plans to
provide occupation for retired fit people are in hand and it
is hoped that these will go some way to help to do what is
urgently wanted. If old people can be found some work to do
which is worth doing the two prime abjectives have been achieved
first they show that they are stiLL useful to the community
and not on the shelf, and secondly they are obliged to get
about to follow their occupation which keeps them on their
feet.
I am again grateful to the members of the Council and
especially to the Public Health Committee, to all the chief
officers working as a team and especially to the staff of the
Public Health Department.
I am, Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
Medical Officer of Health.
July 1955.