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deaths due to road accidents, 28 other accidents, 26 suicide, 1 misadventure, 2 manslaughter,
1 acute alcoholism, 5 open verdicts, 1 asbestosis, 1 unascertainable and 1 natural causes.
Transport of bodies abroad
From time to time certificates are issued regarding bodies being transported abroad to
the effect that the deceased had not died from an infectious disease and that the coffin was
hermetically sealed. Three such certificates were issued this year, relating to bodies flown
to Iraq. Italy and Pakistan.
HOSPITAL FACILITIES
The undermentioned hospitals are situated within the borough:
No. of Beds.
Bethnal Green Hospital, Bethnal Green Road, E.2. 308
The London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, E.l. 719
London Chest Hospital, Victoria Park, E.2. 143
London Jewish Hospital, Stepney Green, E.l. 128
Mildmay Mission Hospital, Austin Street, E.2. 72
Mile End Hospital, 275 Bancroft Road, E.l. 410
Poplar Hospital, East India Dock Road, E.14. 107
Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, Hackney Road, E.2. 146
St. Andrew's Hospital, Devons Road, E.3. 365
St. Clement's Hospital, 2a Bow Road, E.3. 128
On the 1st April the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children transferred from the North
East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board to the administration of the Board of Governors of
the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, and the Mile End and St. Clement's
Hospitals to the administration of the Board of Governors of the London Hospital.
The East End Maternity Hospital, Commercial Road was closed, on 30th September-the
first patient was admitted on 22nd December 1884 to the "Mothers Lying in Hospital" then in
Glamis Road, which transferred to premises in Commercial Road in 1889, extended in 1896 and
again in 1926. Factors which influenced the closure were that the maternity departments of
five hospitals within the area hadasurplus capacity in 1967 for 1,510 patients, and in recent
years in Tower Hamlets 87% of confinements took place in hospital as against 72% for the country
as a whole; the excess of beds in the area was in spite of the high proportion of mothers in
the locality having their babies delivered in hospital.
LABORATORY FACILITIES
Bacteriological investigations for infectious diseases are carried out on behalf of the
health department by the Regional Hospital Board's Group Laboratory at Mile End Hospital and
for infection of food samples are carried out by the Public Health Laboratory Service (directed
by the Medical Research Council for the Department of Health and Social Security)at County Hall,
S.E.1.
Investigations carried out by the Group Laboratory on specimens submitted by the health
department totalled 356, comprising 336 faeces, 4 throat swabs, 10 urine, 4 blood, 1 eye swab
and 1 vomit. Bacteriological investigation on 146 food samples was carried out during the
year.
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