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URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL OF COULSDON AND PURLEY.
HEALTH REPORT FOR 1936.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you my Annual Report for 1936, this being
the fifth Report as your Medical Officer of Health.
In general it will be found to resemble its predecessors, the
arrangement being the same, while the impression gathered will probably
be one of gradual improvement in the health of the District.
The year under review saw a further increase in both the Birth
and Death Rates, the former probably due in part to the increasing
number of young couples who are settling in the District. The
increase in the Death Rate is in part fictitious, being chiefly attributable
to the rather surprising number of non-residents who died in one of the
Mental Hospitals in the District, and who had no previous permanent
abode. The rise would otherwise have been very slight.
The Infantile Mortality Rate remained at the usual low level,
while the Maternal Mortality Rate only slightly increased. Undue
emphasis should not, however, be placed upon this slight rise as this
Rate is liable to marked fluctuations from the small numbers concerned.
From the point of view of Infectious Disease, the year may be
considered to have been a fairly satisfactory one. The waves of
Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria subsided during the first half of the year,
and it is hoped that these, and other Infectious Diseases, will now
remain at a low level for a time.
Probably preparation for the launching of a Scheme for the
immunisation of children against Diphtheria was the most conspicuous
of the activities of the Department during the year, but this was only
one of the many new or extended forms of service which are undertaken
annually.
New legislation has to be absorbed and applied each year, the
Housing Acts 1935 and 1936, being the most noteworthy in the past
year. These have entailed considerable activity in the Sanitary
Department, but the most outstanding achievement of this Department
has been securing the abolition of no less than 119 cesspools during
the year.
Other extensions of note were the taking over of responsibility
for the disinfection of houses from the Wandle Valley Joint Hospital
Board, and duties under the Rats and Mice Destruction Act from the
Surrey County Council.
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