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To the MAYOR, ALDERMEN and COUNCILLORS.
Madam, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This report on the Health Department for 1945 is once more an interim statement
recording only the basic facts of the work done. As stated in the introduction
to the last report, I was temporarily released from the Health Department in
February 1945 to join the R.A.M.C. for military government work in Germany.
During my absence Dr. McGregor was the acting medical officer of health, and most
of the work included in this report was done under her control.
The vital statistics show that the number of births classified as belonging to
the borough underwent a small increase. They were 697 as against 663. The
Registrar-General estimated that in mid-summer 1945 there had been also a slight
increase in the population, but in spite of this the birth rate, i.e. the number of
births per thousand population, rose slightly from 18.73 to 18.96, which is the highest
rate recorded since 1930. The infant mortality rate for the year was 39 as against
36, which is again pleasingly low for a borough of this type. It is again below the
rate for London as a whole. The general death rate shows little change, being 16.5
as against 16.4. This is well above the figure for London as a whole (which is 13.8),
but without knowing the age distribution of the population it is not possible to
make an accurate comparison.
At the risk of speaking too soon and of being depressed by subsequent figures
I feel it is only right to comment on the relatively low infant death rates occurring
during the war. Although this is one of the poorest and most overcrowded of London
boroughs, with old housing, badly damaged through enemy action—all of which
factors tend to make the infant death rate high—the fact is that, compared with
pre-war times when our death rate was substantially higher than the rest of London,
during the latter war years it was lower.
The comparable figures for Shoreditch, the whole of the L.C.C. area, and the
whole of England and Wales respectively, are as follows:—

There are many things which may have affected the rate favourably, amongst
them evacuation, better wages, better food due to rationing, fairer distribution of
food, and the benign influence of an enlightened Ministry of Food policy on nutrition.
But a word of thanks can also be said to the doctors and nurses at the antenatal
and infant welfare centres and to the influence of the midwives and health visitors
in the homes. Nevertheless many of the deaths are still, in the strict sense of the
word, preventable, and our efforts must be continued in all directions—food, housing,
education, parentcraft, employment, wages, and medical services amongst them—
to cut down the rate still further.
With regard to infectious disease, both scarlet fever and diphtheria showed
increases, as did also dysentery. Pulmonary tuberculosis on the other hand showed
a slight decrease. With regard to the commoner infections of children, 1945 was a