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Specialist and a part-time Anaesthetist, thus freeing the
full-time staff for the routine health work of the added
areas. Other stall' increases were an additional Sanitary
Inspector, two junior clerks (one remains to be
appointed), and a part-time Health Visitor.
The vital statistics for the year 1934 are again
favourable—a Death Rate of 9.5, Birth Kate of 13.3, and
Infantile Mortality Rate of 43.9; all compare well with
the previous year and with the rates for the country as
a whole which are as follows: Death Kate 11.8, Birth Rate
14,8, and Infantile Mortality Rate 59. These statistics
are reported on in detail in the body of the report and in
the appendices. They in themselves are meaningless unless
study is given to them in their compilation. The midyear
population for 1934 is given by the Registrar
General as 53,890, whereas my own estimate at the end of
the year, based on the number of inhabited houses and
occupants given in the Census of 1931, yielded a
population figure of 57,520.
Mere numbers as I have said are meaningless, but
what is of more importance is the age and sex grouping of
the population, so that we may compare one area with
another. Our vital statistics for 1934 are based on the
Registrar General's estimate of population so that the rates
per 1,000 appear higher than if I had accepted my own
estimated figure of population. The main difficulties of
giving estimated population lie in the fact that an added
area of population has been absorbed into the Bromley
population, and a still greater difficulty is that population
is in a state of flux in the neighbourhood of London.
Thus statistical figures for 1934 must be accepted with
some reservation.
An endeavour was made during the year to
co-ordinate in some way the work of the multiple
voluntary agencies and the work of the Local Authority.
There is a tendency towards increase of the social worker
visitors to the homes of the necessitous families, and when
one considers the number of itinerant advertisers who so
frequently disturb the housewife, one is not surprised that
the health visitor finds a closed door to her visit.