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The infant mortality rate was 40, compared with 59 in 1936 and 44 in 1935. This
is the lowest infant mortality rate in the records of the Borough. The neo-natal
mortality rate (deaths under four weeks per 1,000 births) was 17.4 as against 21.81
the previous year. The birth rate was 14.2, a slight increase over that of 1936
(13.8). The number of maternal deaths was 3, two less than in 1936, the rate for
the year per 1,000 births being 1.35. Not in any year in the last quarter of the
century has there been so low a maternal mortality rate.
Health propaganda and health education are an essential part of the work of the
Department. For this reason the Council welcomed the National Health Campaign
which had for its primary object the increased use of the health services. The
various activities are reported on in full in Section II.
In Maternity and Child Welfare work the year is notable because of the great
increase in the arrangements made for the care and comfort of the toddler. Additional
clinics have been arranged, following-up is more complete and additionalprovision has
been made for the treatment of the defects discovered. Plans have been approved
for a Central Health Clinic at Woolwich and when the building is completed in 1938
combined health centres for advice and treatment for expectant and nursing mothers,
for infants, for toddlers and for school children will be available for the whole of
the Borough. The salaried midwives service to which I referred in my Report for
1935 and which is to be administered by the London County Council, was not in
operation during the year, but the County Council's arrangements had been completed
to enable this service to be started on the 1st January, 1938. The Woolwich Borough
Council are co-operating in this scheme through their ante-natal clinics and in the
provision of ancillary services.
Much progress was made during the year in the matter of the clearance of
unhealthy dwellings. An additional 20 areas were represented by me during the
year bringing the total number of areas dealt with since the commencement of the
programme up to 54. In these 54 areas were 481 houses, occupied by 1,884 persons.
Three official representations in all have been made by medical officers of the London
County Council. Details of all these areas will be found in the Housing Section of
the Report. Such experience as has been gained in the last two years seems to
indicate that there is a slowly progressing voluntary movement towards the abatement
of overcrowding. At the end of 1935, 683 families were known to be living in overcrowded
conditions. At the end of 1936 the comparable figure was 530, and at the
end of 1937 it was 390. The number of overcrowded families rehoused by the
Borough Council as incidental to their slum clearance or general housing programme
was 62 in these three years; the number rehoused by the London County Council
in accordance with their relief of overcrowding programme was 15. The amount of
overcrowding would appear to be becoming less without much systematic effort at