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PREFACE.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Metropolitan
Borough of Lewisham.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Report for the year 1938 on
the health and sanitary conditions of the Borough, this being the
thirty-eighth of the series.
The Borough retained its position as one of the healthiest in
the Metropolis. The death rate was slightly lower than last year,
while the infant mortality remained at the same low figure.
The incidence of infectious disease calls for little comment.
Scarlet Fever again showed a decrease on the previous year, and
Diphtheria an increase. The aggregate of the two diseases was
very little higher than in the previous year. The expected biennial
epidemic of Measles arrived in the early part of the year, but
was not unduly severe.
Further progress in maternity and child welfare was made by
the completion of arrangements to rent premises on two new London
County Council estates, viz. : Honor Oak and Whitefoot Lane, for
the provision of clinics for mothers and infants. The Council also
approved, in principle, the policy of providing municipal clinics for
parts of the Borough which are not too well served at present, and,
as a commencement, authorised negotiations for the acquisition of
land upon which to erect a clinic to serve the population residing in
Bellingham and Lower Sydenham.
The maternity and child welfare medical staff was augmented
by the appointment of an additional whole-time Medical Officer, and
an obstetric consultant for the ante-natal clinics.