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12
Local sickness
Through the courtesy of the Regional Medical Officer of the
Ministry of National Insurance, I am sent weekly a return indicating
for the various areas of London the first certificates of sickness benefit
received at the local offices. These give some indication of the amount
of sickness in the borough, but the figures as shown in the table below
must be read with certain explanations :—
(1) Until the middle of April, 1951 what is given as the Lewisham
area in the table was split into two areas, namely Blackheath
and Catford.
(2) The areas for Ministry of National Insurance statistics are in
the main coterminous with postal areas of London and not
with borough boundaries.
" Lewisham " in the table is almost entirely in the borough area
and " Downham " is entirely so. The two together cover most of the
borough but relatively small sections are in the " Kidbrooke " and
the " Norwood " office areas of the Ministry of National Insurance.
The sickness returns for all four offices are therefore shown. Bearing
these factors in mind, however, the table, which has been compiled from
the weekly returns, does indicate the major trend of sickness during the year.