London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Stepney 1961

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Stepney]

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Accidents in the Home.
Many more deaths throughout the country occur, now, from accidents
in the home than from road accidents, or from lung tuberculosis, and the
public cannot be urged too strongly to see that all possible precautions
are taken in the home to minimise them. The powers and duties of the
Council under the Home Safety Act, 1961, relating to the dissemination
of information and advice for promoting safety in the home and encouraging
proper precautions against accidents,are exercisable by the Public
Health Committee and the means taken to educate the public in this
respect are referred to elsewhere in this report.
The County Medical Officer of Health supplies me with information
which he obtains from the London Ambulance Service,relating to the
removal to hospital of home accident cases occurring in London and in
the London County Council Health Division 5, of which Stepney forms a
part. A table summarising these figures over the past four years is
given on page 53* Whilst the figures may not be fully comprehensive
they give a reasonably accurate picture.
During the year, the London Ambulance Service removed to hospital
218 Stepney home -accident cases as compared with 178 last year.
Old people are prone to home accidents and the Department's women
Hygiene Officers pay great attention to this during their visitsj for
example, where accidents from gas appliances have occurred, or are
likely to occur, they have been instrumental in obtaining for the old
persons concerned a special safety-type gas cooker. Attention is also
given in the homes of old people to oil heaters, particularly those of
the drip-feed type. Advice and assistance is given to enable the old
people to have these converted so as to conform with safety standards.
Unemployment.
The Ministry of Labour has kindly supplied me with the following
information as to the estimated number of persons residing in the
Borough who were registered as unemployed at the end of the year:-
Men Boys Women Girls
1,308 20 161 8 = Total: 1,497
The total number of unemployed at the end of I960 was 1,265.
Open Spaces.
There is in the Borough 0.73 of an acre of Parks and Open Spaces
per 1,000 population.
A list of the sites is given on page 72.
Comparative Statistics.
A table showing vital statistics for the Borough at various years
from 1901, is on page 54.
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