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5
BOROUGH OF BROMLEY.
Report of the Medical Officer of Health
' for the year 1940.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough
of Bromley.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg- to submit tlie Annual Report for 1940 in
accordance with tlie Ministry of Health's Circular 2-514
of 2Gtb March, 1941. The Report is to be regarded as
an interim one and is again very much curtailed in substance
as suggested by the Ministry of Health. Fuller
details of annual statistics and records have been compiled
and are retained for reference in the Department
in anticipation of the preparation of a survey report of
the war years which is contemplated by the Ministry.
It must be confessed that to summarise in a few
pages the annual review of all the multiple activities of
the health services and of the influences and conditions
affecting- the health and physical well-being- of the
population, especially during war-time, presents no easytask.
A health report comprising terse comments on
selected statistical data may easily lead to erroneous
conclusions in the absence of a substantial analysis of all
facts and points of significance indicated in the figures
shown.
It is on the grounds of pressure of work, lack of
time and paper shortage that we are enjoined l'.v
authority to curtail the report, although in actual fait
on the score of time and work involved, little saving is
really achieved," as the preparation of a curtailed report,
together with a " shadow report " of retained statistics
and other records, absorbs much time and entails work.