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From January 1940, to June, 1948, 5,164 patients were admitted to
the Hospital, and the Maternal Mortality Rate was 1.55 per 1,000 births.
The Hospital always admitted difficult cases and cases of special
emergency and several of the mothers who died had not previously been
under the supervision of the staff and were admitted in a dying condition.
Summing up the work done in both buildings over a period of
twenty-eight years, the following figures are obtained
Total Admissions 10,737
Maternal Deaths 18
Maternal Mortality Rate Total 1.67 per 1,000 births
from Sepsis 0.46 „ „ „
from other causes 1.21 „ „ „
Neo-natal Deaths 162
Neo-natal Death-rate 15.09 „ „ „
Pupils trained 125
Throughout the whole period during which the Hospital was under
the control of the two Authorities, all those who were connected with
its administration and operation worked as a single united team.
Recognition of individual services were recorded at Meetings of the
Joint Committee just prior to the date when the Hospital was transferred
to the control of the Regional Hospital Board.
3. Diphtheria Immunisation.
Although the mortality from Diphtheria had been considerably
reduced as a result of the introduction of Antitoxin in the closing decade
of the last century, the disease remained prevalent and continued to cause
the deaths of many children.
In Beckenham, the records show that the disease appeared in waves,
a period of high incidence occurring every six or seven years. When I
took up my duties in the autumn of 1927 the district was experiencing
one of these periods of high incidence, in which, as was usual, the
children of school age were the group principally affected.
For a number of years a great deal of work had been done in research
laboratories in perfecting an antigen, the administration of which by
injection conferred a high degree of immunity on the persons treated.
In 1927 this form of protection was in active use in many institutions
in the country and a few local authorities were offering it to the general
public.
In 1928 the Urban District Council approved a scheme for inviting
parents to have their children protected by this method, and in the
autumn of that year regular immunisation clinics were established in the
district.
With the unhappy effects of the recent outbreak fresh in their minds,
a large number of parents consented to the treatment; and, although
in subsequent years the receding danger lead to a certain amount of
apathy, it was found possible, by the co-operation of the Head Teachers
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