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BEX 6
Health Department,
14 Brampton Road,
Bexleyheath, Kent.
My Ref.
(please quote)
You Ref 27th June , 1941.
G. F. B R A M LEV. M.D.,D.P.H .
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.
TELEPHONE, BEXLEYH EATH 2 2 4-4-/5 .
ANNUAL REPORT OP THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR 1940.
The report this year is again confined to essential and
urgent matters in accordance with Ministry of Health Circular
2314 of the 26th March, 1941. A summary of vital statistics
is appended, from which it will be seen that the general health
of the Borough has been maintained at a high standard despite
the conditions of overcrowding when the majority of the
population spent many of the night hours in air raid shelters
in the last four months of the year. Some evidence was
forthcoming, however, that some persons were not bathing and
changing their underclothes as frequently as before, and this
was seen "by an increased number of cases of scabies. This,
I understand, has been fairly general throughout the country.
The Registrar General's estimate of population for midyear
is 77,670 compared with 80,110 for 1939. There has been
a slight fall in the birth rate which is only to be expected
in view of the several conditions brought about by the war.
There has been an increase in the death rate, largely due to
deaths due to war operations, but even after the application of
the comparability factor the death rate compares favourably with
the rest of the country.
The Corporation Maternity Home has been fully occupied
throughout the year and maternity and child welfare clinic
sessions held regularly, although smaller attendances have been
encouraged especially at the child welfare sessions. There has
been no curtailing of health visiting, in fact there has been an
increase in the number of home visits made, and the only
restriction in the whole of the maternity and child welfare
services throughout the year was the discontinuation of special
classes in cookery and sewing.
The bye-laws affecting sanitation, as with other bye-laws,
lapsed in October 1940, three years after the Incorporation of
the Borough as required in the Borough Charter. Application
was made to the Ministry of Health for the renewal of certain of
the lapsing bye-laws which it was deemed necessary to have in
effect, but in view of the war the Minister refused to sanction
the proposed bye-laws put forward. So far it has been possible
to continue sanitary work without these bye-laws, but if a
difficult offender is met it is not possible to forecast how the
remedy for the nuisance or defect can be obtained where such is
not covered in the general legislation.
The water supply, despite temporary dislocation due to was
damage, has been maintained and a pure and wholesome water has
been forthcoming after a few hours on practically all occasions.
Regular weekly collections of house refuse have been
seriously interfered with owing to the call-up of workmen and
the difficulty in replacing them and owing to dislocations in
traffic movements from time to time. The longest period between