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and elderly population in Southgate is taken into account. The
infantile mortality rate shows a welcome drop, and is one of the
lowest yet recorded in the district. The infectious sickness rate
has also fallen, although it must be admitted that a considerable
decrease in measles and whooping cough notifications was almost
entirely responsible for the reduction. None the less, a glance at
the returns will show that, once again, Southgate was spared the
rigours of an epidemic or even a localised outbreak of infectious
disease.
A noteworthy feature of the year was the negotiations which
were begun with a view to transferring our Isolation Hospital to
the County Council for use as a Maternity Unit. These negotiations
were protracted, but a satisfactory conclusion was eventually
reached. This matter will be more fully dealt with later in the
Report.
Miss M. Evans, Health Visitor, left to take up another appointment
on 28th February, 1946, the vacancy being filled by the
appointment of Miss P. Carter. With this exception, the staff of
the Public Health Department remained unaltered during the year.
The rapidly increasing number and variety of social services
available to the general population has thrown additional burdens
on the shoulders of the Public Health Department. The extended
use of the Home Help Scheme and the inauguration of the Council's
Domestic Help Scheme are two examples of this widening horizon;
but they do not by any means exhaust the story. The deterioration
in living conditions brought about by the war, together with the
additional strain under which we now struggle to exist, have
presented new problems and magnified old ones, sometimes out of
all recognition. Two years' absence from England brought this
very forcibly to my notice, more forcibly, perhaps, than continuous
contact with these problems might have done. If we are to have any
hope of maintaining even our present standard of living, we must
fight as we never fought before. That may be a truism of which we
hear too much. But truism or not, in no field more than the vital
domain of Public Health is it so significant.
It will be noted that there is no specific mention in this Report
of the work of the School Health Service. This work continued to be
undertaken by the Middlesex County Council during 1946, although
I prepared a detailed plan during the year for taking over the School
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