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5
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Croydon,
September, 1920.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the County Borough
of Croydon.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to submit the Report of the work carried out by the
Public Health Department during the year 1919.
The report contains certain information which has not been
required until this year by the Ministry of Health, such as the
note on the hospital accommodation for all purposes available in
the town, etc. This is of particular interest, as it indicates the
growth of the wider view which is now taken by thoughtful people
of the responsibilities of health authorities for the whole welfare
of the community. The closer the co-operation of purely preventive
medicine and purely curative medicine, the better for the
national health.
The birth-rate was 15.4 and the death rate 11.7.
Another epidemic of influenza visited the country in 1919,
but less severe in type than in the preceding year. Croydon also
experienced an outbreak of smallpox in the summer months. The
disease was introduced from abroad. We were fortunately able
to restrict the outbreak. Accounts of these will be found in the
section and tables on Infectious Diseases. Later in the year the
Smallpox Hospital was opened as a sanatorium for tuberculosis.
The growth of public Health work has been very rapid during
the past seven or eight years, and a much more accurate and
extensive knowledge of the incidence of sickness and the lasting
effects of such sickness upon the people is coming to us which
will be of great value in the impending developments of the various
sections of the work.
I am,
Your obedient Servant,
R. VEITCH CLARK.