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VITAL STATISTICS
Whole District
Total deaths, 731. (Males 337; Females 394.)
Crude Death Rate, 13.31 (including deaths in St. Bernard's Hospital, Norwood Hall
and Vine Cottage); 9.18 (excluding these deaths).
For extracts from vital statistics and causes of death, see Appendix, Tables I and II.
Deaths and Death Rate
A new system of allocation by the Registrar-General of deaths in districts commenced
on the 1st January, 1953. Deaths occurring in long stay hospitals are now included as
local deaths, even though the persons concerned may still have private addresses in other
districts or in other parts of the country.
As we have in Southall a very large mental hospital and two homes for chronic sick
or aged persons, the new allocation causes a large increase in the calculated death rate, and
there are no means of comparing this with figures for previous years. However, by
subtracting these institution deaths from the total, a reasonably accurate figure can be
obtained for the purpose of comparison with the 1952 crude death rate of 9.33, and this
figure was 9.18, therefore, there was a reduction in the death rate for Southall residents
other than those in institutions.
Heart disease, coronary disease and cancer were the principal causes of death, and,
owing to the inclusion of institution deaths, there was a substantial increase in the figures
for each of these, but it must be remembered that the average age of the occupants of St.
Bernard's Hospital, of Norwood Hall, and of Vine House, is likely to be well above that
for the rest of the Borough, and, in fact, deaths from these causes occurring in the institutions
amounted to 48 heart disease, 24 coronary disease and 14 cancer, respectively.
It is pleasing to be able to record another year without a death from diphtheria. Less
happy is it to note that measles and whooping cough each claimed one victim by death,
that one mother died in hospital following her confinement, and that the number of deaths
from tuberculosis rose from 9 in 1952 to 12 in 1953. Two died of poliomyelitis, both
deaths occurring shortly after hospital admission, and after sudden onset of the disease.
There were 7 who died after involvement in accidents on the roads, 1 more than last
year.
The number of outside deaths, i.e. of Southall residents who died in Hillingdon
Hospital, other Middlesex hospitals and hospitals outside the County boundaries, including
various London Hospitals, was 231 (males 135 and females 96).
Deaths of institution inmates (including patients from Southall addresses and from
outside areas) number as follows: St. Bernard's Hospital, 190 (males 69 and females 121);
at Mount Pleasant Hospital, 2 (all male); Southall-Norwood Hospital, 9 (5 male and 4
female); Norwood Hall, 35 (2 male and 33 female); Vine House, 3 (all female); in addition
21 deaths (17 male and 4 female) occurred of persons belonging to other districts and residing
temporarily in Southall.
Of the 5 persons killed in road accidents in Southall during 1953, 2 were pedal cyclists,
2 motor cyclists and 1 a pedestrian. Although there was no particular black spot in which
several fatal accidents occurred, it was noteworthy that of the 5, 4 happened on the main
arterial road from east to west, and 3 of these at sections of the road where the dual
carriage way would seem to offer more prevendon, because of one way traffic and islanding
of the road.
To make an approximate allowance for the way in which the sex and age distribution
of the local population differs from that of England and Wales as a whole, the crude death
rate is multiplied by a comparability factor supplied by the Registrar-General. This then
gives a comparative death rate of 14.24 including institutional deaths, or 9-82 excluding
these, compared with the rate for England and Wales as a whole, i.e. 11.4.
For distribution of deaths in the various wards, see Appendix, Table III, and for the
comparison of general birth and death rates and rates of maternal mortality, see Appendix,
Table IV.
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