View report page

Public Health Department,
Elmfield House,
High Street,
Teddington.
To the MAYOR,ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS
of the BOROUGH OP TWICKENHAM.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on
the health and sanitary condition of the Borough during the year
ending 31st December,1945. Following the practice of the war years,
the report has been condensed and certain tables omitted.
The year 1945 saw the termination of hostilities
both in Europe and in Japan, There was general happiness that the
end of the war had come, that conditions would quickly return to
their normal peace-time level and a happy anticipation that the near
future would bring improvements in our health and maternity services.
During the war years the population of the Borough
fell from 99,000 in 1939 to below 88,000 during the worst of the
flying bomb period of 1944. In 1945 the return of evacuees and
new people coming into the Borough caused the population to rise at
an enormous rate. This rise, together with the loss of property
during the war began to show itself as an acute problem of overcrowding
with its attendant discomforts and dangers to health. The
number of births and the birth rate for the whole year were a little
less than for 1944, but towards the end of the year it was observed
that the rate was beginning to increase remarkably. Men were
beginning to return home from the Forces and to settle down with
their wives to peace-time occupations and were starting their families.
The increase in the birth rate would aggravate the already
overcrowded conditions in many houses. Time, only too unhappily
has proved this to be the case.
I think the conditions of overcrowding had an
adverse effect on our infant mortality rate for 1945; It was not as
good as I would have wished for. The death rate of all infants per
1,000 live births rose to 48.02 as compared with 37.1 in 1944; and
the Illegitimate infant death rate rose to 62.5 as compared with
43.5 in 1944. These figures are much worse than those for 1939
when we had reduced the rate to 26.4. In 1945 two-thirds of the
infant deaths occurred in babies under four weeks old. We must
ensure that our ante-natal services continue at maximum efficiency
to ensure that every baby is born in optimum health and in circumstances
ensuring as far as possible the best chance of survival.
Apart from the statistical information reaching
the health department on births, deaths and infectious diseases,
very little information is received about the incidence of morbidity
the amount of illness, trivial or serious, which is not of an
infectious nature, but which may have an adverse influence on the
health of the population. I should like to know for example, how
many people suffer from rheumatism, at what periods of life it is
worst, what factors influence its severity, and much more information
of a similar nature. There are many other illnesses causing
suffering and disability about which such information would be useful.
With a more adequate knowledge of the extent of these problems we
might perhaps be able to suggest measures for their prevention. A
useful beginning has been made by the Ministry of Health Social
Survey, but much more is needed.
More and more people are making use of public
health services. The attendances at centres are high; over 90%
of the mothers of new-born babies attend the clinics for help and
advice, whilst at the health department we are receiving requests
- 2 -