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and food store to take advantage of the grants available for
the provision of these.
The proposed amalgamation of the district with its neighbours
to form the new Borough of Hillingdon has brought a considerable
amount of work. Many discussions have been held with
our colleagues in order to standardise the methods of work and
make the eventual fusion as smooth as possible. It has been
both interesting and instructive to exchange ideas and I feel
that the time taken was well spent.
The statistics for 1963 follow a similar pattern to those
of previous years. Owing to the introduction of re-rating the
rateable value of the district has taken a sharp rise, but this
has not meant that more money was available for spending. The
birth rate has increased and I am pleased to be able to report
a decrease in the perinatal and infant mortality rates, although
the latter is still well above the lowest for the district
14.0 recorded in 1957.
There were outbreaks of infectious vomiting in 2 schools
in the district during the early summer. These came to our
notice through the head teachers concerned. Vigorous attention
was paid to personal hygiene and the opportunity was taken to
ensure that adequate facilities for hand washing were available
in all the schools in the district. The facilities preferred
are liquid soap and paper towels, as they are economical and
each user has a clean towel and does not risk picking up germs
from the previous user's hands. I was pleased to have quoted
back to me by the mothers the lessons on personal hygiene which
we had given to the children- it is not often that health
education shows such rapid results.
I should like to thank the staff of the Public Health
Department for their enthusiastic work during the year and the
staff of the Council's printing section for their work on this
report, and I should like to conclude by thanking the members
of the Council and especially of the Health and Safety Committee
for their interest and support, not forgetting their sense of
humour during meetings.
I am, Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
V. SHAW
Medical Officer of Health.
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