View report page

To: THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND BURGESSES OF THE LONDON BOROUGH OF BARKING.
It is my pleasure to present to you my Annual Report for the year 1970.
In many ways this year will be a landmark in the history of your Health
Department.
There have been two major staff changes during the course of the year.
Miss Long, Superintendent Health Visitor retired and her successor Miss C.
Oldham was appointed Chief Nursing Officer and Superintendent Health Visitor.
We welcomed also to our staff Miss Lambert, Consultant in Obstetrics and
Gynaecology at Barking Hospital who will now act as Medical Supervisor of
Midwives for the Borough.
The health of the population is often reflected in the Vital Statistics.
The live birth rate of 13.27 per thousand is well below that for England and
Wales. The infant mortality at 12.26 per thousand live births is the lowest
recorded in the Borough's five years of existence. The causes of death in
the Borough continue to reflect the current spate of death and disease
associated with smoking. There were 152 deaths from lung cancer, 363 deaths
due to coronary heart disease and 112 deaths due to bronchitis and asthma.
It is obvious that much work remains to be done in the field of health
education in this area if these unnecessary deaths are to be prevented in
the years to come.
The Health Education Service continues to fulfil an important role
in the work of the Department with an increasing demand for its services
in the newly formed comprehensive schools of the Borough. This section
is also playing an important part in the Cervical Cytology Campaign which
has been initiated this year to increase the number of women living and working
in the Borough who are screened by this test.
The Kingsley Hall Assessment Centre has now been functioning for
eleven years and an opportunity has been taken to describe this Centre in
greater detail. Included in this report is a statistical survey of the
work of the Centre. This Assessment Centre continues to be a pioneering
project which has no equal in other Boroughs.
Among the developments this year in the field of immunisation is the
commencement of rubella immunisation in girls aged 11-14. The campaign
commenced in November and by the end of the year 141 girls had been immunised.
The campaign to protect children against measles has also continued and the
bulk of children now being immunised are under 4 years of age.
Previous reports have described the introduction of the Dermojet for
administering B.C.G. vaccination to school children. There has been a further
increase in the number of children accepting this valuable protective
measure. This year 1,664 children were vaccinated, representing an increase
of 403 over the previous year.
In the field of environmental health the Department has continued its
work and several improvement areas have been initiated to improve the housing
standards of residents in the Borough. Measures to maintain a high standard
14