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3
BOROUGH OF RICHMOND.
Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1954.
PREFACE.
Staff.
Early in May, Mr. K. H. Halstead left the staff of Sanitary Inspectors
to take up a similar position with another Authority. The
vacancy was advertised on a number of occasions but there were no
ipplicants. Thus for eight months of the year the department was
short-staffed and a good deal of the routine work had to be left
undone. The establishment, (a Chief Sanitary Inspector, a Senior
Inspector and two District Inspectors) is exactly right for this area,
but where prolonged vacancies exist the work must suffer.
The Senior Clerk, Miss J. Black, resigned to take up a secretarial
position in industry. She had held this appointment since 1946, and
throughout this period she served the Authority faithfully and competently.
The post was filled by the promotion of Mrs. F. G. Smith who had
been on the Staff for the same length of time, and who was familiar
with all aspects of the work. The vacancy caused by the promotion
ot Mrs. Smith was filled by the appointment of Miss J. Tranter as
junior clerk-typist.
Population.
The Registrar General's estimate of the population was 42,480
which is an increase of over 500 on the Census, population of 1951.
As Richmond contains rather a high proportion of elderly persons
the crude birth and death rates must be corrected to make them
Properly comparable with rates for the remainder of the country.
The Registrar General supplies factors for this purpose.
Births.
During the year 632 births were recorded (319 males and 313
females). This figure may be compared with 585 in 1953 and 851 in
1947, The number of illegitimate births was 35 which is one more
than in 1953. This compares favourably with figures for the postwar
years and is steady at the pre-war level.