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PREFACE
Public Health Offices,
Ilford.
September, 1949.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Ilford.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I submit herewith the Annual Report on the Health Services for the
year 1948.
Although the operation of the National Health Service Act, 1946,
removed some of the Health Services from the control of the Borough
Council on 5th July, 1948, it has been considered convenient on this
occasion to give an account of these services throughout the year.
During 1948 Ilford became an area of Divisional Administration for
certain of the services administered by the County Council under Part III
of the Act. For this purpose the County Council constituted an Area
Sub-Committee, which assumed responsibility for the day to day administration
of the Maternity and Child Welfare Services, domiciliary midwifery,
health visiting, home nursing, vaccination, immunisation, care and after-care
of the sick, and domestic help. For the administration of these services
I have been appointed Acting Area Medical Officer. The Council's former
responsibilities in regard to Infant Life Protection were also terminated by
the provisions of the Children Act, 1948, which, coming into operation on
5th July, transferred these functions to Essex County Council who have
appointed a Children's Officer for this purpose.
The health of the town's inhabitants has remained uniformly good,
as evidenced by the vital statistics given on pages 10 and 11. Reference
to Table IA on page 15 will show that the local figures compare most
favourably with those for England and Wales and the Administrative County
of London.
It will be noted that the uncorrected death rate of 7.3 is 1.3 below
the figure for 1947, and the corrected death rate of 8'4 is the lowest recorded
since 1935. For the first time since 1900 (before which local figures are
not available) no maternal death occurred in connection with childbirth.
The infantile mortality rate continued its decline, falling to 21.7, the lowest
ever recorded in Ilford, and substantially below that given for England and
Wales (34) or the Administrative County of London (31). There were only
37 deaths of infants under the age of four weeks giving a neonatal mortality
rate of 12.9 per 1,000 live births. This is the lowest locally recorded since
1905 before which it does not appear in annual reports. The stillbirth rate
shows a reduction to 22.3 as compared with the 1947 figures of 24 6.
The birth rate showed a fall to 15.8 as compared with last year's
figure of 19.1. The former figure is the lowest since 1941. The actual
number of births registered totalled 2,848 as compared with 3,368 for
1947. It is satisfactory to note that the number of illegitimate births
registered was only 3.2 per cent. of the total.
During the year under review, the environmental hygiene section of
the Department continued its work, which was considerably increased by
housing and infectious disease enquiries. In addition to the routine supervision
of matters of general sanitation, particular attention was paid to the
purity of food supplies, especially milk and ice cream.
During the year a campaign against food and drink infections was
launched. A long term educational policy was adopted, directed to school
children, the public generally, and executives of all grades in the food