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CHIGWELL URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL
To the Chairman and Members of the
Chigwell Urban District Council
Mr, Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present the Annual Report for the year
1945 upon the health and sanitary circumstances of the
district.
I take this opportunity of thanking the staff of
the Public Health Department for their help and cooperation
and the members of the Public Health Committee
for their support during the year.
After 6 years of an exhausting war the health of
the district, as judged by the infantile mortality, death
rates and the incidence of infectious disease must be
regarded as remarkably good.
The outstanding material need for health and
happiness is first and foremost houses ; it is unnecessary
to enlarge upon this which is universally recognised.
A second problem that faces us, perhaps less frequently
mentioned, is the changing age structure of the population.
In 1900, there were less than 2 million people
over 65 years of age in the country, in 1951, there will
probably be 5½ million.
The housing shortage, the complete lack of
domestic help and of hospital accommodation for the
chronic sick is resulting in an amount of suffering
amongst the aged and infirm which is not perhaps fully
realised except by doctors and nurses. There is of
course no rapid and easy answer to the problem. The
shortage of institutional accommodation is mainly one
of nursing and domestic staff, but there is a strong case
for the inclusion of a certain number of dwellings suit-
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