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East Barnet Urban District Council
EIGHTY-FIRST
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1954.
To the Chairman and Members of the
East Barnet Urban District Council
I have the honour to present my report for the year 1954.
Full details of the work of the Public Health Department can be
studied in the ensuing pages of the Report and in particular attention
is drawn to the Analysis of Vital Statistics. As mentioned on
previous occasions Vital Statistics in a population of the number
in East Barnet are apt to be misleading unless due provision is
made for the somewhat startling results produced by a small variation
in the number of any particular disease or cause of death.
This may well be the explanation of what would appear to be the
very satisfactory fall in the number of deaths of infants under one
year. Nevertheless credit must be given to health propaganda
and the work of the Health Visitors A personal opinion on this
point is, however, that health propaganda is most satisfactorily
pressed by the person actually responsible for the treatment being
carried out, e.g. the Medical Practitioner and the District Nurse.
Attention must be drawn to the very small number of notifications
of Measles received during the year and this leads to the
point that there can, unfortunately, be no doubt that notifications
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