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7
Public Health Department,
Council Offices,
Billet Lane,
HORN CHURCH.
25th August, 1949.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Horn church Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Public health is not one of the local government activities
which lends itself to the spectacular, but its Annual Balance Sheet
is none the less important because it is translatable into terms of
human well being rather than of finance.
The details presented in this report are therefore of real significance
as presenting a general picture of the health, hygiene services
and environment of our people.
The general health picture is satisfactory.
The vital statistics show that the birth rate is lower than. of
recent years, the death rate is also slightly lower and the infant
mortality figure, although higher than last year, is almost identical
with the country as a whole. The maternal mortality rate is higher
this year than for the country in general.
There has been an increase both in notification and deaths from
Tuberculosis, although the death rate from this disease is slightly
lower locally than for England and Wales in general. The principal
causes of death remain as in recent years.
Infectious disease notifications show that Scarlet Fever and
Measles were both below last year's figure and the national average,
whilst Whooping Cough, although higher locally than in 1947, was
also below the national average.
Infantile Paralysis cases were somewhat higher than the
average.
An outbreak of Dysentery specially reported to you at the time
accounted for a large increase in the 1948 figures for this disease.
Housing continues to make good progress, although we are not
yet permitted easily to deal radically with all our sub-standard
properties, whilst the time for the over-crowding survey has not yet
arrived
An interesting development has been the initiation of a series
of observations in Atmospheric Pollution problems. Further details
will be noted later in this report.
Current problems such as food hygiene have occupied the
attention of your staff and use is made locally of suitable propaganda
material to emphasize the importance of the subject.
The coming into force of the National Health Service Act,
1946-which occurred during the year under review-whilst not the
cause of any major change in the services coming within the realm
of this report, nevertheless basically affects the general medical