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Health Office,
Gentleman's Row,
Enfield,
Middlesex.
To the Major, Aldermen and Councillors of the London Borough of Enfield.
I have pleasure in presenting my report on the health of the borough for the
year 1969.
This report follows the pattern set during previous years, the main sections
dealing with the three major aspects of the work of the department— personal
health, environmental health, and school health.
The general trends revealed by the vital statistics for the borough are satisfactory,
and compare favourably with the national figures. The Birth Rate, slightly
lower than last year, is also lower than the national rate. The Infant Mortality Rate
and the Death Rate, continuing low, are also somewhat lower than the national
figures.
Five deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis occurred. This low figure focuses
attention on the 190 deaths from cancer of the lung and bronchus— an increase of
sixteen over last year's figure. No other organ of the body shows so much cancerous
involvement, and, of respiratory diseases, only pneumonia shows a greater incidence:
and this only by a small margin.
The Illegitimate Live Birth Rate remained stationary and was somewhat lower
than the National Rate. Included in the local figures were births to some very young
teenage girls.
With regard to infectious disease, notifications of measles were considerably
greater in number than during the previous year, but there were significant reductions
in the number of cases of whooping cough, food poisoning and dysentery.
Two cases of poliomyelitis— the first for some years— were notified. In each
case, however, and also in the one case of paratyphoid fever notified, the infection
had been contracted abroad. These cases, and the increasing number of persons
requiring surveillance for smallpox, serve to highlight the epidemiological problems
inherent in modern holiday customs and expanding business travel.
In the field of the personal health services (including school health), a vast
amount of activity took place, and details will be found in the body of the report.
One particularly satisfactory development has been the progress, albeit slow, in
implementing the policy of attachment of field and nursing staff to general medical
practice. This progress has been made despite the many difficulties, caused mainly
by the shortage of staff, with which the department has had to contend for so long.
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