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Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Friern Barnet,
Middlesex.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present the Annual Report
for the year 1962.
The year ended sadly with Dr. Harvey's sudden illness
in October which deprived the District of his services for the
remainder of the year. Dr. Harvey is still not fit to resume
duty and his absence is felt particularly at this time when his
wisdom and experience would have been so valuable in the planning
of the new Borough. I know that he has the warm good wishes of
all members of the Council.
The vital statistics for 1962 were again satisfactory.
The birth rate with 349 live births was 13.8 per 1000 of population.
The death late was 11.0, slightly lower than last year's figure of
11.3 and also lower than that for the country as a whole, 11.9
It is very satisfactory to be able to state again
this year that there were no maternal deaths.
The infantile Mortality rate i.e. the number of infants
who died during the first year of life per 1,000 live births, was
22.9 as against 44.7 last year - a very satisfactory drop, representing
as it does 8 fewer infant deaths. The statistics over the past
four years show two trends which are persistent and appear significant.
The birth rate has been rising successively each year from 12.9 in
1958, 13.4 in 19591 13.8 in 1960 to 14.1 in 1961, and although it has
dropped slightly to 13.8 this year the trend seems to be continuing.
This rising birth-rate is taking place generally over the whole country.
Less satisfactory and a cause for concern is the trend in the illegitimate
birth rate i.e. the number of illegitimate births expressed as a
percentage of the total live births. This rate is rising each
successive year. In 1959 illegitimate births were of the total
live births. In 1960 this rose to 5.08%, in 1961 to 3.7% and this
year it has again risen to 7.1% of total live births. It needs little
imagination to picture the problems and distress which must arise from
this increasing rate.
The number of infectious diseases notified during
1962 was 60 as against 489 last year. This was accounted for by
a similar fall in the number of cases of measles. The infectious
sickness rate was 2.1, the lowest on record, as compared with 17.2
during 1961. It is of note that no deaths during the year were
due to notificable infectious disease. This is a complete and
dramatic reversal of the position a few decades ago when the high
mortality from infectious diseases struck in the early years of life.
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