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45
Staffing.
Although all departments have suffered from depletion of staffs
to some extent throughout the war, the section that suffered most here
was the sanitary inspectorate as all the time we were deprived of the
help of some of the assistants, apart from those periods when there
were reduced numbers of inspectors.
The war nurseries in general have never had their full complement
of staff and those engaged suffered from a very high absence rate. Apart
from the reduction in members of the department though, much time
of the health visitors was taken up in trying to help householders whose
difficulties arose from shortages of such persons as home helps and foster
mothers, two classes of person whose aid was never needed more. The
greatest numbers of appeals received over the years by the Public Health
Department have probably been on the one hand for housing accommodation,
and on the other for help for those, particularly the elderly,
who, while not sufficiently ill to need immediate admission to the bed
of a general hospital yet could not be left alone but who could turn to
no one for assistance.
Conclusion.
The normal services operated in the district for most of 1939, much
time though being spent on the preparation of the A.R.P. Organization.
A Ministry of Health scheme of milk for maternity and child welfare
cases at reduced rates was at long last about to be introduced. Perhaps
the proximity of the war had some effect on the decision on the Council's
application for the Marlborough Hill Clearance Area. The Public Health
Committee was concerned at the limited control given by the Building
Bye-laws to prevent the erection of poor standard houses.
With the war came the early loss of many members of the staff.
For a short time health visitors were engaged entirely at the first aid
posts. Clinic sessions were discontinued to avoid massing of people,
and ante-natal supervision was carried out at the homes of the midwives.
As a neutral area there were fewer population changes than in most other
districts near. The low incidence of illness of any kind and the postponed
onset of measles outbreak have already been referred to. Though
apparently normal until the beginning of raiding, 1940 was sufficiently
disturbing to result in a sharp increase in the number of deaths, especially
amongst those over 55, while the infant mortality rate rose considerably,
though the incidence of infectious diseases remained light. The second
half of that year seemed to be taken up in making arrangements for the
reception of numbers of people who never came. 1941 was the year
in which judged by the available statistics, the health of the community
suffered most, the number of deaths and the death rates being raised,
the notifications of and deaths from tuberculosis increased, the higher
infant mortality rate and the greater prevalence of those infections
spread by food. From that time on conditions steadily improved, the
health of the district throughout 1942 being in general good, the infant
mortality rate in particular having fallen. Apart from the higher death
rate and the tuberculosis figures, the statistics for 1943 were not so very
dissimilar from those of a pre-war year.