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2.
To the MAYOR, ALDERMEN and COUNCILLORS of the METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF
SHOREDITCH.
Mr, Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I herewith present my second "last" annual report on the health of
the Borough, which follows once more the lines laid down by the Ministry of
Health.
Some of the vital statistics for 1963 are proving difficult to
interpret, especially those for infant mortality rates. It will be noticed
that, while the number of live births is somewhat lower, the stillbirths are
only one-third of those of the previous year, and yet, at the same time, the
number of children dying before the age of one year has jumped from 14 to 20,
On the other hand, exactly half of those 20 died from bronchitis or pneumonia
(i.e. 10 as against 2 in the previous year), and this would appear to be due
solely to the very severe weather in 1963. Yet the figures for London as a
whole were rather better than in 1962, and also, in Shoreditch, the perinatal
mortality rate was halved (stillbirths+ under one week). Hence the most
probable explanation would appear to be that the medical and nursing attention
received is so good that the weaklings survive until external conditions
become too severe for their resistance to overcome. But whatever the cause,
I have satisfied myself that there is no local sinister effect in operation
which could possibly be remedied by this Department.
Deaths from infection were negligible, pulmonary tuberculosis yielding
only 4 (as against 9 last year), but we had one death following whooping cough
for the first time since whooping cough immunisation was begun in the Borough.,
As regards deaths from other causes, the only ones which increased to any
extent were again coronary disease (from 89 to 105) and pneumonia (from 40 to
71), cancer of the lung having dropped, for once, from 35 to 28.
Even the notifications of pulmonary tuberculosis are scarcely more
than half of those for 1962 (13/24), and are in fact the lowest ever recorded
in this Borough. Also, 1963 was a measles year, but resistance seems to have
been excellent, there was not a single case of polio, and no instance of
puerperal fever (with again no maternal deaths)
The outstanding event of the year in the Social Welfare section of the
department has been the introduction of the new Holiday Hotel on the seafront
at St. Leonards-on-Sea to the pensioners of the Borough, Although it was not
adapted to its future duties until after the end of the year (when a lift and
other improvements are being installed), a preliminary run until September was
so popular that no one could stay for more than one week and nothing but
praise came from the guests. All the other facets of work for old people
continue unabated (see pp. 20/21).
While the work for old people has shown no loss of staff, the same
cannot be said for our staff of public health inspectors which has again
dropped perilously, for reasons shown under'Sanitary Circumstances'(p. 22 )
but the introduction of non-qualified technical assistants has momentarily