View report page

4
Deaths.
The total number of deaths occurring amongst residents were 588
(259 males and 329 females). When considering this figure it should
be remembered that all deaths occurring in Kingsmead and other
"long'Stay" Institutions are now assigned to this district. Because of
this and the high proportion of elderly persons resident in Richmond
the Registrar General supplies a factor by which the death rate is
corrected and made comparable with the rest of the country. The
corrected death rate is 11.1 per thousand population which compares
favourably with the rate for England and Wales.
In the majority of cases the death rates for various diseases compare
satisfactorily with other towns. The exceptions are the tuberculosis,
the influenza, and the pneumonia death rates.
As regard tuberculosis, reference to the table in Section F shows
that half the deaths occurred in persons over the age of 55. Such
cases are of long standing and many of the patients have moved in
from other districts.
The high rates recorded for influenza and pneumonia are undoubtedly
due to the abnormally high proportion of elderly residents.
It should be noted that there were only 11 deaths of infants under
1 year of age and that no child under 2 years died from enteritis.
The rates in these cases compared particularly favourably with other
towns. Unfortunately, there was one maternal death—the patient
developing an unusual form of pneumonia shortly after childbirth.
Because of poor health she had been in hospital for several weeks
before the confinement and she had every care.
In view of the small population concerned this one death brings
the maternal death rate for Richmond to a level well above that for
England and Wales.
Infectious Diseases—Notifications.
Generally there was no serious outbreak of infectious or other
notifiable disease during the year under review.
The incidence of scarlet fever and measles in Richmond was
considerably higher than elsewhere. This is difficult to explain
particularly when one recalls that there was an epedemic of measles
in 1951 and the incidence of scarlet fever was higher in that year
than elsewhere.