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8
The number of inhabited houses is 34,285, an increase of
1,597 houses. The birth rate has still further decreased and was
15.8 per 1,000 of the population as compared with 18.1 for last
year. The death rate for the borough at 11.55 was slightly higher
than for the corresponding period.
The infantile mortality figure, i.e., the deaths of infants under
one year—shews a still further reduction from 26 to 24—again the
lowest infantile mortality rate in the history of East Ham.
The deaths of children under one month total 29—a neo-natal
mortality rate of 14.9, approximately the same as last year.
The diagram on page 18 gives an indication of the causes of
death which occurred in the borough, and that heart, circulatory
diseases and cancer accounts for a large proportion of the deaths.
In respect of treatment of infectious diseases, it will be seen
that cases are admitted to hospitals within a wide radius of the
borough and more patients are treated at home.
This brings into focus an aspect of " Regionalisation " which
is causing the Council some concern.
Complaints are being received from residents who object to
the removal of their children to Infectious Diseases Hospitals remote
from East Ham. Considerable travelling expenses to the parents
in visiting are incurred and the consequent curtailment in the
frequency of the visits distresses the parents and further increases
the feelings of abandonment, and loss of affection experienced by
the sick child. In this matter regionalisation tends to ignore
modern paediatric teaching and, in addition, the charges of the
ambulance service tend to swell the overall high cost of the hospital
administration.
Another facet of the same problem is turned to the strong light
of professional and public criticism, in the long waiting list for
admission to sanatorium of early acute and active cases of
pulmonary tuberculosis. Since the ' appointed day ' the waiting
time has grown from four weeks to ten months and, in many
instances, the living conditions have considerably worsened and the
possibility of the spread of infection markedly enhanced by delay
in sanatorium treatment.