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2
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, St. Mabylebone, W.l.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Metropolitan Borough of St. Marylebone.
In presenting this report for the year in which hostilities in the second world war ended, it is gratifying to be able
to place on record that, despite the various disabilities inseparable from war, the health of the inhabitants of the
Borough was maintained at a satisfactory level throughout the period 1939-1945. In 1945, for the first time since 1930,
the birth-rate (13.34) exceeded the death-rate (13.26): these rates in 1944 were 13.98 and 15.34 respectively. The
already low infantile mortality rate declined slightly from 47.18 (1944) to 46.54: comparative figures for the County
of London as a whole were given as 61 (1944) and 53 (1945). Infectious disease notifications rose from 671 (1944) to
1,036, due almost entirely to the measles epidemic which swept through the country in the spring, when 355 cases
were reported in the Borough in eleven weeks. Fortunately, only one death from measles was recorded.
The personal health services continued to be in great demand and it was necessary to hold additional maternity and
child welfare clinics in the autumn.
During the latter part of the year the civil defence casualty and emergency mortuary organisations, which had served
the Borough so faithfully and efficiently during the war years, were disbanded.
I am grateful to the Chairman and members of the Public Health and Maternity and Child Welfare Committee for
the continued encouragement they gave me in connection with the work of the Department, and to the staff for their
loyalty and support in the task of meeting the changing demands made upon the local health services by post-war
conditions.
H. A. BULMAN,
Medical Officer of Health.
CONTENTS.
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Members op the Public Health Committee 3
Section A—Statistics and Social Conditions:—
General Statistics 3
Extracts from Vital Statistics 3
Births 3
Marriages 3
Maternal Mortality 3
Deaths 4
Infantile Mortality 4
Mortuary 4
Crematorium 5
Section B—General Provision of Health
Services:—
Staff 5
Laboratory Facilities 5
Home Nursing 5
Youth Centre 5
Maternity and Child Welfare
Welfare Centres 5
Ministry of Health Investigation 5
Refresher Courses for Health Visitors 5
Student Health Visitors 5
Visitors to Centres and Nurseries 5
Work of the Clinics 5
Home Visits 6
Milk and Vitamin Products 6
Day Nurseries 6
Home Helps 6
Child Life Protection 6
Illegitimate Children 6
Premature-Infants 6
Dental Treatment 6
Child Guidance 6
Maternity Cases 6
Convalescent Homes 6
Section C—Sanitary Circumstances:—
Water 7
Drainage 7
Combined Drainage 7
Public Conveniences 7
Public Cleansing and Salvage 7
Shops 7
Diseased or Infirm Persons 7
Bed Bugs 7
Verminous Persons 7
Rats and Mice 7
Dog Nuisance 7
Mosquitoes 7
Pigeons 7
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Noise 7
Smoke 7
Poisons 7
Factories 7
Sanitary Inspection 8
Section d—Housing:—
War-damaged Dwellings 8
Adaptation of Premises 8
Empty Properties 8
Factory-made Houses 8
New Blocks of Flats 8
Inspection of Dwelling Houses 8
Common Lodging Houses 8
Public Air-Raid Shelters 8
Section e—Food:—
Milk Supply 9
Meat and Other Foods:—
Unsound Food 9
Slaughterhouse 9
Food Premises 9
Ice Cream Premises 9
Butter and Margarine Premises 9
Bakehouses 9
Fried Fish Vendors and Fish Curers 9
Restaurants, etc. 9
Horseflesh 9
Bacteriological Examinations 9
Food and Drugs Act, 1938 9
Section F—Infectious and Other Diseases:—
Notifications 10
Epidemics—Assistance to Householders 10
Diphtheria Immunisation 10
Vaccin&tion 11
Scabies 11
Impetigo 11
Dysentery 11
Venereal Diseases 11
Insulin 11
Food Poisoning 11
Tuberculosis:—
New Cases and Mortality 11
Notifications' 11
Dispensary 11
Institutional Treatment 12
Maintenance Allowances 12
Government Rehabilitation Scheme 12
Care Committee 12
Disinfection 12
Bacteriological Examinations 12