Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
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Births in Institutions.
Local— Legitimate. Illegitimate. Total.
Residents. Non-residents. Residents. Non-residents. Residents. Non-residents.
Paddington Hospital 142 19 84 13 226 32
St. Mary's Hospital 122 157 5 4 127 161
Lock Hospital 1 14 2 28 3 42
Outlying (Paddington residents)— Legitimate. Illegitimate. Total.
Queen Charlotte's Hospital 223 17 240
Other Lying-in Hospitals 10 2 12
Other Hospitals 61 11 72
Municipal Hospitals and
Public Assistance Committees'
Institutions 110 50 160
Notification of Births Acts, 1907 and 1915.—These Acts require the father of a child,
if actually residing in the house where a birth takes place at the time of its occurrence, and
any person in attendance upon the mother at the time of, or within six hours after, the birth,
to give notice in writing of the birth to the Medical Officer of Health of the district in which
the child is born, in the manner provided. Notification applies in the case where a child has
issued forth from its mother after the expiration of the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy,
whether alive or dead.
In practice, it is almost always the doctor or midwife who notifies a birth, and not the
father of the child.
During the year, 1,714 live births were notified to the Medical Officer of Health. There
were also 45 stillbirths notified. Of the 1,759 living and stillbirths notified, 48.4 per cent.
were notified by medical practitioners, 41.8 par cent. by midwives, 0.7 per cent. by parents,
and 9.1 per cent. by medical students or other persons.
A comparison of the Notification Register with the returns supplied by the local Registrars
of Births shows that 98.4 per cent. of the live births and 94.0 per cent. of the stillbirths
occurring within the Borough were duly notified. It will be seen that only a small
proportion of births are not notified and so escape being brought to the notice of the
Medical Officer of Health until they come to be registered within the statutory period of
six weeks. In nearly every case of default a cautionary letter was sent to the person
responsible, and in no instance did the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee consider
it necessary to institute legal proceedings.
DEATHS.
The number of deaths registered during the year as having taken place in the Borough
was 1,817.
Of these, 601 were of persons whose residence was not in Paddington, 522 dying in
Paddington Institutions and 79 in other places in the Borough.
There were also reported to the Registrar-General 688 deaths of Paddington persons
whose deaths occurred outside the Borough.
This correction gives the nett number of deaths for Paddington as 1,904, making an
annual death-rate of 13.26.
1932.
Selected Causes of Death Arranged in Four-Weekly Periods.
Period ended. | Measles. | Scarlet Fever. | Whooping Cough. | Diphtheria. | Phthisis. | Cancer. | Influenza. | Bronchitis. | Pneumonia. | Diarrhoea & Enteritis |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4 | - | 1 | 6 | 7 | 16 | 15 | 8 | 1 | ||
4 | — | 1 | 18 | 18 | 14 | 16 | 16 | |||
4 | - | - | 10 | 21 | 8 | 10 | 5 | |||
5 | - | - | 10 | 16 | 5 | 4 | ||||
5 | - | 1 | - | 8 | 21 | - | 1 | 13 | ||
- | - | - | 8 | 19 | 5 | 4 | 5 | |||
- | - | 1 | 1 | 5 | - | 1 | 5 | 4 | ||
3 | - | - | 9 | 18 | - | 7 | 4 | |||
- | - | - | 2 | 7 | 23 | - | 2 | 7 | 10 | |
- | - | - | 1 | 3 | 16 | - | 11 | |||
- | - | - | - | 7 | 25 | - | 1 | 15 | ||
- | - | - | 1 | 6 | 21 | - | ||||
- | - | - | 1 | 7 | 17 | 2 | 2 | |||
- | 150 |
The foregoing table gives the numbers of deaths from the various causes as classified
locally. The figures differ somewhat from those supplied by the Registrar-General in the
table appearing on the next page.