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To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the London Borough of Merton.
Madam Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present the report on the work of the Health
Department of the London Borough of Merton for the year 1972 and
also the School Health Service Report. This may well be the last report
to be presented to you since all the Health Department staff, other than
the Environmental Health Section of the Department, will be transferred
to the new Area Health Authority for Merton/Sutton/Wandsworth
on the 1st April, 1974, under National Health Service reorganisation.
This year brought several changes in the staff structure. Dr.
Patrick J. Doody retired in June having been a Medical Officer of
Health and Principal School Medical Officer for almost thirty years;
during this long and distinguished service in this area he was for
seven years Medical Officer of Health and Principal School Medical
Officer of the London Borough of Merton and twenty-three years prior
to that in the service of the Wimbledon Borough Council. On his
retirement I took up my appointment as Medical Officer of Health and
Principal School Medical Officer, and in August, 1972, was joined by
Dr. G. S. Sethi as Deputy Medical Officer of Health. In spite of all
these changes the year has been one of continuing improvement in all
aspects of the work.
The decline in population, which has been evident since 1955,
continued, but the decrease was smaller in 1972 than in the previous
few years. The mid-year estimate of population was 176,820; this
being 180 less than the figure for 1971. At the 1971 Census there
were 25,855 (or 14.63%) of the population who were aged 65 years
or over. The percentage for England and Wales for the same year was
13.17. This high percentage of old people in the Borough inevitably
necessitated expansion of services, both in the Health Department and
the Social Services Department. With this in mind a night nursing
service was introduced which has proved to be a defiinite step in the
right direction. The service commences at 8 p.m. when a trained nurse
visits the patients who require skilled nursing care and a nursing
auxiliary visits those who require only assistance to go to bed. From
11 p.m. onwards the nursing auxiliary may remain with patients who
are critically ill and require all night attendance, thereby reducing the
pressure on hospital admissions.
Live births at 2,320 were 147 fewer than in 1971. The resultant
live birth rate of 13.12 was the lowest since 1959.
The infant mortality rate rose from 13.78 in 1971 to 15.08 in
1972; also the neo-natal and the peri-natal death rates showed a slight
rise, but the neo-natal death rate fell from 10.54 in 1971 to 10.34 in
1972. All these rates, however, are well below the rates for England
and Wales as a whole. Deaths in 1972 totalled 2,143, 130 more than
in 1971 and the number of deaths from lung cancer rose by 11, which
is in keeping with the national trend.
Notifications of infectious disease in the Borough declined. The
total number of notifications in 1972 was 503 as against 701 in the
previous year. Most of the notifications were for childhood diseases
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