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COULSDON AND PURLEY URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you my Annual Report for 1947, this being my
sixteenth report as your Medical Officer of Health. It is regretted that it
has not proved possible to produce this report earlier in the year, chiefly
owing to the requests for other reports and the demands resulting from
the implementation of the National Health Service Act. It is hoped that
by next year reorganisation will have taken place, with a redistribution
of duties, which will permit time being given to the preparation of this
report when it is most needed, i.e., early in the year and particularly in
June and July, after the Registrar-General's statistics are received. Much
will, however, depend on the adequacy and ability of the staff then available,
the most important members of which have yet to be recruited.
It will be found that in this report I have concentrated more on the
health of the District during the year 1947 and not reviewed so liberally
the preceding years, as in my last two reports, which covered the war
period and the 30 years during which this District has been a separate
Local Government unit. It will be unique in one respect in that it
records the services provided by your Council during the last complete
year before the National Health Service Act caused the transfer of certain
of your most important responsibilities to the County Council. Future
reports will, of course, reflect these changes.
The year 1947 will be remembered by most of us for its phenomenal
weather, with the coldest early months experienced for many years, and
the equally remarkable dry and sunny summer. It was, however, on the
whole a very satisfactory one in so far as the health of your District was
concerned. The Birth Rate remained high, though a trifle lower than
in 1946; the Death Rate rose slightly, but was chiefly attributable to
increases in deaths of the more elderly sections of the community; the
Infant Mortality Rate was one of the lowest this District, with its normally
good record, has ever known; while the incidence of infectious
disease was also one of the lowest recorded locally, and this in spite of
the epidemic of poliomyelitis which affected the whole country. Fortunately,
the number of cases of this disease which occurred locally was
relatively small. It is most pleasing to be able to report also that for the
first time a year has passed without a single case of diphtheria being
notified in your District. While the Doctors, Midwives, Health Visitors
and others engaged in Maternity and Child Welfare work must gain
satisfaction in considering the saving in infant lives represented by the
low Infant Mortality Rate, so, too, can those responsible for Diphtheria
Immunisation, with the consideration that, compared with the average
years preceding its introduction, no notifications in 1947 represented the
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