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Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit this Annual Report on the
Health Services of the Borough for the year 1946. The
abridged form adopted during the war years is continued,
but it has been possible to include rather more detail in
some of the sections.
My personal responsibility for the service was limited
to the period following 15th July, on which date I took up
my appointment in West Ham. During the interval
following the departure of my predecessor in December,
1945, the Health Department was in charge of Dr. Maclntyre
as Acting Medical Officer of Health, while Dr. A. Furniss,
the Chief Assistant School Medical Officer, was responsible
for the School Health Service.
One other notable change of staff was the appointment
of Dr. Norman Jones as Medical Superintendent of Whipps
Cross Hospital, following the retirement of Mr. O. R. M.
Kelly on account of ill-health.
The increase in the population, which became evident
after the cessation of hostilities, continued during the year.
By midsummer 1946 the Registrar-General estimated that it
had reached 163,730, and it is thought to have approached
170,000 by the end of the year. The rate of increase,
however, appeared to be slackening.
The year was remarkable for a great increase in the
number of births, the rate rising steeply from 21.6 per 1,000
in 1945 to 26.8 per 1,000 in 1946. A similar occurrence
was recorded after the first world war, but the peak figure
for West Ham on that occasion was 32.2 per 1,000 in 1920:
the decline was already well advanced when, in 1921, the
rate fell to the same level as that now recorded for 1946.
All the indications are that the peak of the present wave has
now been reached and that a drop in the rate must be
expected in future. It is interesting to note, however, that,
through practically all its ups and downs, West Ham's
birth rate has been higher than that for London or for
England and Wales as a whole.
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