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4
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Erith
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my annual report for the
year 1950.
In trying to assess the health of the Borough during the
year under review we are beset by many difficulties. On the
one hand the vital statistics which are available to us and which
are dealt with in detail below, afford a useful guide in regard
to the major causes of death at the various ages from infancy
to old age and much information is, also, available of the
incidence of infectious diseases many of which, such as diphtheria
and scarlet fever, have diminished in importance as a
result of improved environmental conditions and advances in
preventive medicine. What we lack, at present, is reliable
statistical evidence in regard to morbidity i.e. ill-health of the
kind which results in the filling of hospitals, out-patients'
departments and doctors' surgeries and which result, not
necessarily in death, but in lowered resistance, anxiety states,
reduced efficiency, absenteeism and an inability to enjoy life to
the fullest extent. The survey of sickness now regularly
carried out by the Registrar-General on representative population
samples in England and Wales gives a good indication
of national trends but has no specific application to the area
with which we are concerned, and we must rely, therefore, on
the evidence which comes to us in the course of our daily
work and contacts with the general public, doctors, health
visitors, sanitary inspectors and the voluntary organisations
which operate in the Borough.
It is necessary, occasionally, to make this distinction if
only to avoid an excess of optimism which might well be
justified by a study of the vital statistics of the Borough by
themselves, which are satisfactory.
The birth rate for 1950 was 14.96 per thousand compared
with 17.00 in 1949; for the first time the Registrar General has
supplied a comparability factor (0.95) to enable a comparison
to be made with other parts of the country. The adjusted
rate was 14.21. The birth rate for England and Wales for 1950
was 15.8 so that the birth rate for Erith during the year under
review was below that for the country as a whole.