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9
BOROUGH OF ROMFORD
To His Worship the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors of the
Borough of Romford.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies, and Gentlemen,
I have the honour, herewith, to present to you this, my Annual
Report on the Health of the district for the year 1946.
This is the Thirteenth Report in the series, since I was
appointed your Medical Officer of Health, and it is drawn up in
accordance with the requirements of Articles 6(3), and 17(5) of
the Sanitary Officers' (Outside London) Regulations, 1935, as modified
by Circular 13/47 of the Ministry of Health, dated 13th March,
1947. This Circular again states that the Report should be an
Interim one.
1 feel that it would be appropriate to give a word of explanation
for the apparent delay each year in the publication of the Annual
Report of the Department. As a matter of fact, the greater part of
the Report is drafted during the month of January following the
termination of the calendar year to which it refers, but it is
impossible to give particulars of the vital statistics until the
Registrar-General has submitted his inward and outward transfers
of deaths for the last quarter of the year, and these are not available,
as a rule, until the month of March. Furthermore, the RegistrarGeneral's
estimate of the mid-year population, and tabulation of
statistics for local and National rates are not obtained until May or
June. The delay, therefore, is outside the control of the Department.
An interesting feature of the year under review was the approval
of the Minister of Education on the 28th January of the Romford
Education (Divisional Administration) Scheme, 1945, and the
Borough then became an "Excepted" District for the purpose of
the Education Act, 1944. Arising out of this, on the 1st October,
1946, your Medical Officer of Health was appointed Acting Borough
School Medical Officer, and took over the administration of the
School Health Services in the Borough as from that day. In this
way it will be possible to achieve a still closer co-ordination of all
health services in the district.
As regards the question of Staff for the Department, we have
again had to contend with a shortage of Sanitary Inspectors, and
Health Visitors, and have, of necessity, had to adjust our work
accordingly. It is to be hoped, however, that the future will offer
brighter prospects in this direction.