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Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Friern Barnet,
Middlesex.
The Chairman and Members of the
Friern Barnet Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present the Annual Report of
the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1954, the first
full year during which I have had the great privilege of
acting as Medical Officer of Health for Friern Barnet.
The form of this year's Annual Report is broadly
speaking the same as that of recent years. Certain minor
amendments have been made, especially in the re-arrangement
of material and inclusion of new tables. As before,
uncritical reference has been made to the work carried out
in Friern Barnet by the Middlesex County Council, This
allows the health picture to be presented as a whole, and
not in isolated fragments.
It will be remembered that, last year, I included as
an Appendix to my Annual Report a statement which I submitted
to Area Committee No. 2 on the Personal Health Services
relating to the Area, of which Friern Barnet forms a part.
As my Area report will not be ready by the time my report to
the Friern Barnet Urban District Council is circulated, I
propose, with the County Council's permission, to send a copy
of my Area Report to all members of the Urban District Council
as soon as it is ready.
So far as the vital statistics for 1954 are concerned
these are complicated by the fact that figures applicable to
Friern Hospital are included in the totals. The result of
this may be seen in the fact that the death rate for Friern
Barnet (14.2) was the highest recorded in any Middlesex
district last year, while the Tuberculosis death rate per
1,000 population was also the highest in the County.
Further reference will be made to these figures in the body
of the report, when it will be shown that the rates applicable
to the population of Friern Barnet, excluding Friern Hospital,
are by no means alarming.
A much happier position is shown when the Infantile
Mortality Rate is concerned. The Infantile Mortality Rate
for 1954 is 21.9. The corresponding rate for 1953 was
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