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7
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER
OF HEALTH
Department of Health Services,
Hanover House,
Lyon Road,
Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 2EH.
To The Worshipful the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the London
Borough of Harrow.
Madam Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my annual report on the health and
sanitary conditions of the district for the year 1971.
Consideration of the vital statistics again shows variations within
the normal seen from year to year. There was a population decrease of
1,060 to a total figure of 205,000 and the birth and death rate of 14.4
and 10.3 per 1,000 population respectively were approximately the same
as for 1970. It is pleasing to report that there was a decrease in the infant
mortality rate from 14.0 to 12.0 per 1,000 live births, which compares
with a figure of 18.0 for England and Wales. Once again the majority of
infant deaths occurred in the early neonatal period and were due in the
main to congenital defects and prematurity. There was one maternal
death but in general local statistics compare very favourably with the
national rates.
I commented a few years ago in an annual report that a Health and
Social Services Department was never static. Changing patterns in
services provided, increased demands from the public and above all the
main criterion of trying to improve services to the burgesses, all serve to
keep the department alive and active. New legislation, some of a very
sweeping nature, can also have a tremendous influence and sometimes
brings about drastic changes in the working pattern of the department !
In retrospect, 1971 can therefore be said to have been quite a year !
The Local Authority Social Services Act of 1970 was implemented,
setting up new social services departments to deal with the welfare and
children's services, the mental health service, the home help service and
the day care of children—services which had traditionally been personal
health service therefore moved into the sphere of activity of the personal
social services. This was followd in May by the Secretary of State's
Consultative Document, which described in outline the Government's
proposal for the re-organisation of the administrative structure of the
health services. The administration of the National Health Service is to
be unified and will incorporate the personal health functions which have
been carried out by local health authorities since 1948. This re-organisation
of the National Health Service is scheduled to coincide with the reorganisation
of Local Government outside London on the 1st April, 1974.