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PREFACE.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Merton and Morden Urban District Council.
Madam Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my duty to present to you my Annual Report for the
year 1947. This is my Eighth Annual Report to you and it will
be the last report in which I shall have the pleasure of presenting
it to you in such a comprehensive fashion, as since the 5th July,
1948, many of the services dealt with have become the responsibility
of the County Council.
At this moment which marks the beginning of a new era, it
is not out of place to look back and examine our achievements
in the years just behind us. To facilitate study of the relative
statistics, I have prepared six graphs which are inserted before
the text of this report. These graphs bring out, I think, more
clearly than any words, the progress which has been made in our
health services.
The vital statistics for the year are eminently satisfactory.
The Register General has estimated the population at 75,290,
the highest figure yet accorded to the district. The total births
were 1,374 including still births. The total live births were
1,345 again a record figure. There was one maternal death
which makes our maternal mortality rate 0.74 per thousand
live births and 41 actual deaths of infants under one year of age
gives us an infant mortality rate of 30.4 per thousand.
The number of deaths from cancer has dropped slightly
from 126 to 118 as has the number from tuberculosis from 42
to 32. This latter fact, together with the fact that fewer cases
were added to the register in 1947 than in the previous year, may
afford some comfort in our anxiety with regard to the ultimate
effect of the present housing conditions on the incidence of this
disease. The death rate for the population at 8.1 per thousand
is below the average for the past 10 years, in fact our vital
statistics place us among the favoured areas of England and
Wales.
It is profoundly to be hoped that no epidemics of infantile
paralysis will recur to deprive the year 1947 of its claim to fame
in this respect. The epidemic as is well known was widespread
throughout the whole country and we had 22 cases notified in
Merton and Morden. Fuller details will be found in the body of
the report in Section F.
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