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3
PREFACE.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In submitting the 48th Annual Report on the health of the Metropolitan
Borough of Woolwich, it is my pleasure to report that on the whole the health of
the Borough remained good during the year. Apart from measles the incidence
of infectious disease again remained low. The notifications of diphtheria numbered
27 (10 of which were confirmed) and is a remarkable comparison with the figure of
264 ten years ago. The number of confirmed cases of scarlet fever decreased by
58 to 239. There were no deaths from diphtheria and scarlet fever, and only one
in the case of measles, one from whooping cough, and one from cerebrospinal fever.
During the year under review, there were 10 confirmed cases of poliomyelitis,
compared with 23 during the previous year. Of these cases one has spent many
months in hospital ; four have some paralysis in a varying degree preventing their
participation in full of the normal activities of life ; four have made a complete
recovery. The remaining case was fatal.
The Registrar-General's estimate of the mid-1948 civilian population (142,800)
shows an increase of 2,650 over that of 1947, and is the highest since 1938. The
total live births which, for many years, have been around 2,000 per annum, rose
to 3,193 in 1947 but dropped to 2,527 in 1948, resulting in a comparative birth rate
of 22.8 in 1947 and 17.7 in 1948.
I am pleased to report that the death rate of 11.0 is the lowest for the Borough
since 1938 (10.4). The infant mortality rate of 29.28 shows a slight increase over
that of 1947. The rate for London as a whole was 31. The infant mortality rate
is usually regarded as the best single indication of the general health of a community.
During the thirty years the Borough Council has been responsible for the maternity
and child welfare services of the Borough, the number of infant deaths has fallen
from 106 per thousand births in 1918, to a record low level of 27 in 1947—the last
full year of control of these services by the Borough Council.
There was only one maternal death in 1948, giving a maternal mortality rate
of 0.43 per 1,000.
There was a slight reduction in 1948 in the number of deaths from tuberculosis.
On the other hand, the number of deaths from cancer, totalling 279, was in excess
of the figure of 260 for the previous year, the majority of deaths occurring between
the ages of 55 and 65.
The Appointed Day, 5th July, under the National Health Service Act, 1946,
makes the year 1948 a significant one in the history of the Council. I refer briefly,
in an appendix, to the transferred services, but I feel the circumstances warrant
special mention. Over a period of some thirty years, the Council, by implementation
of legislation by the Central Government, by the practical expression
of their own ideals, and by their appreciation of the needs and desires of the citizens
of the Borough, built a Maternity and Child Welfare and a Tuberculosis Service
of which they were justifiably proud. We can pause to recall all those Councillors,
staff, and volunteers (especially those of the "pioneering" days) who formed part