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ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Bexley.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report for
the year 1948.
The vital statistics for the year show that the health
of the population of the Borough has been well maintained.
The birth rate at 15.36 per thousand of the
population, however, is lower than the rate for 1947
which was 18.72 and lower than the 1948 rate for
England and Wales which was 17.9 as against 20.5 per
thousand during the previous year. There can be little
doubt that planned family limitation is an important
feature of the present housing shortage which remains
the most important single health problem not only in the
Borough of Bexley but in the country as a whole.
The death rate at 7.53 per thousand of the population
is the lowest ever recorded in the Borough and
compares favourably with a rate of 10.8 for England and
Wales. It is interesting to note that the death rate for
the Brampton Ward was as low as 5.3 per thousand and
for the Falconwood Ward 6.4 per thousand, compared
with a death rate of 9.9 for the Christchurch Ward and
8.1 per thousand for the St. Mary's Ward. The explanation
would appear to be that, in the first two mentioned,
the new housing estates which have been built in the
past 30 years have tended to attract a younger population,
while in the remaining two Wards, which contain
some of the oldest property in the Borough, the age
constitution of the residents is probably higher. This
phenomenon has been noticed regularly since 1939 and is,
therefore, worthy of mention.
The infant mortality rate reached a new low level
of 19.03 per thousand live births compared with a new
low rate for England and Wales of 34 per thousand, and
this favourable result is due, in part, to the fact that, in
Bexley, there were no deaths in children under 2 years
from gastro-enteritis and diarrhoea which took such a
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