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3
CITY OF WESTMINSTER
Telephone:
01-828 8070
Health Department,
City Hall,
Victoria Street,
London, SW1E 6QJ
To The Right Worshipful The Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the City of Westminster.
My Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
I have the honour to present for your information my Annual Report on matters affecting the health of
the City of Westminster in the year 1972. Once again opportunity has been taken to include comparable
statistics of the previous year; they appear in the text in parentheses or elsewhere in a separate column.
The most noticeable feature of the vital statistics for 1972 is a fall in the adjusted birthrate of 14 per
cent as compared with 1971. The proportion of live births to unmarried mothers, although still high has
also declined slightly. Taken together these figures might indicate that family planning including termination
of pregnancy is already having an effect. It is however too early to draw any conclusions.
Details are given on page 38 of four maternal deaths which occurred during the year; the highest number
since 1965. Three were Westminster residents; the fourth was a citizen of France who had come to this
country for treatment. In two cases death was due to complications of late pregnancy. The other two deaths
followed termination of pregnancy in its early stages and must to some extent be regarded as a reflection of
the high number of such terminations carried out in hospitals and nursing homes in the City.
Although this report deals with 1972 it has been written in 1973 and will be the last of its kind before
the reorganisation of the National Health Service on 1st April, 1974. Toward the end of 1973 after many
months of discussion and consultation the boundaries of the new health regions and areas in London were
defined, and Kensington and Chelsea together with Westminster were grouped as one area. A Joint Liaison
Committee on which all the many health interests serving the City and Royal Borough were represented
was formed, of which I have had the honour to be chairman. This body has now largely completed its task
which was to collect and collate information and to present options to the new Area Health Authority
setting out possible patterns for the services and administration of the area. The Area Health Authority has
been appointed and met for the first time on 9th October, 1973.
The effect on the Westminster City Council's services of the reorganisation in 1974 may be summarised
by saying that the personal health services described in this report will be transferred to the Area Health
Authority while the environmental health services will remain with the City Council.
In his introduction to the section of the report dealing with environmental health services Mr. Pike the
Chief Public Health Inspector expresses the hope that after reorganisation local authorities will not
fragment the organisation of the Public Health Inspectorate. Much of the routine work of the public
health inspectors may appear to be related to the functions of a number of departments of a local authority
and to some extent to overlap them. For this reason some authorities may be tempted to divide their public
health inspectors and transfer them to the departments concerned. Whilst this may appear superficially
attractive from a management standpoint it must be remembered the public health inspectors also have a
function in a number of emergency situations which demand urgent action by a well trained, organised and
unified force which can be called out at short notice. Fortunately in Westminster it has been decided that
the public health inspectors will be transferred as a body under the Chief Public Health Inspector to a
newly formed Public Protection Section of the Town Clerk's Department.
Throughout the personal health services section of the report numerous references are made to the close
ties which have already been established with hospitals and general practitioners in the City in medical,
nursing and social work fields. This augurs well for the future integration of the services in 1974 when they
become the responsibility of the new Area Health Authority.