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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
For the Year 1953
Public Health Department,
76 High Street,
NORTHWOOD.
April, 1954
To the Chairman and Members of the
Ruislip-Sorthwood Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This Annual Report for the year 1953 is the first 1 have had
the privilege of submitting to you. Since it was as late in the
year as October 1st when I took up my duties as Medical Officer
of Health, the report is largely an account of the final year's
working of the Public Health Department under the direction of my
predecessor, Dr. L.D. Bailey, and I would like here to pay tribute
to his kindness and thoughtfulness for the painstaking way in
which he introduced me to the various problems of the office.
The mid-year population of the district is now given as 72,130
and there are 20,312 inhabited dwellings. Although the population
and the number of houses continue to increase, the vital statistics
of the district may be said to remain satisfactory, as reference
to the table of comparative statistics will show. The Infant
Mortality rate is usually regarded as a test of the services in a
district and, although subject to annual fluctuations owing to the
smallness of the figures involved, over a period there has been a
steady decline. I have introduced a graph to illustrate this, and
to show the remarkable progress in the saving of infant life that
has been made.
There has been no case of diphtheria in the district - thanks
to the continued co-operation of parents in having their children
immunised, The stage has now been reached when people have forgotten,
or have had no experience of, the tragedies which used to
occur with such appalling frequency twenty years ago. This tends
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