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4
The chief causes of death were substantially the same as in
1934; diseases of the Heart and Circulatory system, Cancer and
Respiratory diseases causing more than 60 percent, of the total
deaths.
The report, being divided into sections, presents the
statistical details of each phase of the work under the appropriate
headings. As regards Mayday Hospital, the changing character
of the work can be seen in the enumeration of the conditions for
which patients were admitted and of the operations performed.
The number of emergency and accident cases has increased. The
Hospital is coming rapidly into line with general hospital practice.
Work has been pursued energetically in the inspection and
representation of individual unfit houses. Delay in action, however,
has been caused by re-housing difficulties. There is every
indication that this will soon be remedied. The clearance area of
Old Town has been demolished and new houses built on the site.
The Dickenson's Place Clearance area has also been dealt with,
and the Ely Road Improvement Area houses put into proper
repair. Leighton Street East and the area in the Triangle, Upper
Norwood, were approved as clearance areas.
One of the paramount difficulties experienced has been with
overcrowding in large houses which are divided into tenements.
This is becoming more prevalent, but it may be possible to take
effective action under the provisions of the Housing Act, 1935.
There will, however, have to be constant vigilance to see that the
overcrowding clauses are not contravened.
A section has again been devoted to the Obstetric Service
conducted by Officers of the Council. This scheme is one of the
most comprehensive in operation and fulfils practically all the
fundamental requirements of an adequate maternity service, as
formulated in the final report of the Departmental Committee of
the Ministry of Health on Maternal Mortality. The statistical
details given in the appropriate section show that it is being more
fully utilized and that it is exerting an increasingly beneficial
effect upon maternal morbidity and mortality.
The scope of the sections with their detailed statistics indicate
the extent to which the Public Health Service has become an
integral part of the civic economy. There are few aspects in the
lives of citizens which do not, in some way or other, come within
its activities. As the density of population increases it becomes
more than ever imperative to maintain a high level of sannitation