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7
been particularly advantageous in a rapidly growing district such
as this, in that the members of the staff, each dealing with a smaller
population, would the more readily have become known to the
mothers. The proposal, however, did not find favour with the
County Council, with the result that the health visiting and the
work of the school nurses are carried out by separate staffs.
Each of the Sanitary Inspectors has an allotted district, in
respect of which he carries out all the duties of the District Inspector.
Complaints of nuisances are numerous and investigations
take up much of the time of the staff. The increased duties
resulting from recent legislation in connection with the Shops
Acts has also added much work—though the more recent of these
added duties are more closely allied to the work of the sanitary
inspector than were most of the previous duties which call more
for a policeman's than for a sanitary inspector's outlook, and for
this reason it is now more rational for the duties in connection
with the Shops Acts to be undertaken by the sanitary inspectors
rather than by special officers.
The value of those vital statistics by which the health of a
district is gauged is negatived to a certain extent by reason of
the abnormality of the age distribution of the population. A
high proportion of low-aged persons in the population lowers the
crude death rate, and is often associated with a high birth rate.
The infant mortality rate for the district is slightly below that for
the country as a whole, but the maternal mortality rate is distressingly
high. Of the notifiable infectious diseases, scarlet fever
displayed, especially towards the end of the year, a high incidence,
but the figures for diphtheria were low throughout the year.
Notifications from tuberculosis in a growing district tend to be high,
as over a short period of time cases are brought to the notice
of the Authority which have contracted the infection not necessarily
recently but over a period of years.
I desire to thank the members of the Council and the administrative
staff for the help they have given me.
I have the honour to be,
Mrs. Webb and Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
E. W. CARYL THOMAS,
Medical Officer of Health.
Council Offices,
Harrow-on-the-Hill.
24th June, 1935.