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hotels, boarding houses, etc. On the other hand, there are many institutions
which are regarded as the usual residence of their inmates.
These include accommodation provided under Parts III and IV of the
National Assistance Act, 1948, boarding schools, convents, nursing
homes for the aged and chronic sick, nursing homes (mental) and
residential nurseries. Any deaths occurring then in the following
institutions in this district are allotted to this district:—
Cottage Hospital, Stanmore; Oxhey Grove Hospital, Hatch End; Little Company
of Mary Nursing, Harrow; St. Saviours, Harrow View, Harrow; Stanmore Residential
Nursery, Honeypot Lane, Stanmore; St. Dominies Convent School,
Harrow; Wembley Eventide Homes, Priory Close, Harrow; Springbok House,
Stanmore Hill; St. Joseph's Convent, High Street, Wealdstone; "Woodcote,"
Stonegrove, Edgware; Bowden House, Sudbury Hill, Harrow; Roxbourne Hospital,
Rayners Lane, South Harrow; Blythwood House, Uxbridge Road, Pinner;
Chiswick House, Moss Lane, Pinner; Pinner House.
The occurrence of deaths at most of these institutions is not common
except such of them as provide accommodation of the type available at
the Roxbourne Hospital.
1,188 persons died in this district in 1954. This figure includes
those members of the Armed Forces stationed here. Of these 149 were
of persons who were not resident in the area. 79 deaths took place in
the various hospitals and 33 in private nursing homes.
Of the 759 deaths of the local residents which occurred outside the
. district, most took place in institutions, 288 being at the Edgware General
Hospital. 158 deaths took place in hospitals just outside the district,
including 10 in nearby isolation hospitals, and 208 in various London
hospitals.
The total number of deaths was 1,790. The figure for 1953 was
1,925. The 2,094 of 1951 was the largest number of deaths recorded for
this district.
The death rate was 8.2 per thousand population. The rates for the
years 1944 and onwards were 9.3, 9.0, 8.6, 8.5, 8.9, 9.5, 8.7 and 8.8.
Liability to death varies at different ages. Any changes in the agedistribution
of a population then affect the death rate; similarly, the
death rates of the sexes are not the same. To offset the effects of these
variations and so produce a rate which can be compared with that of
other districts, or that of the same district at other times, the RegistrarGeneral
calculates a comparative mortality index based on the 1951
census population. When the death rate figure is multiplied by this, a
figure is obtained which would have been the death rate for the district
had the age and sex distribution of the population been that of the
country as a whole in 1951. The index figure is 1.14; the adjusted death
rate is 9.3, a figure well below that of 11.3 for the country as a whole.