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5
PREFACE
TELEPHONE:
01-478 3020
Health and Welfare Department,
17/23, Clements Road,
ILFORD.
September, 1970.
Mr,Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I hereby submit the fifth Annual Report of the Health and Welfare Services of the
London Borough of Redbridge.
A few points on the statistics of the borough are presented. Last year, I mentioned
that there had been a steady decline over the years in the population, but contrary to the
opinion of statisticians that this would continue, there was a slight rise in 1968. The
statisticians now seem to have been correct in their prophecy, for in 1969, the population
dropped from 246,090 to 244,800, although the number of inhabited houses increased by
1,041 to 79,066. The adjusted live birth rate has fallen slightly from 14.79 to 14.36.
The infant mortality remains low, but not so remarkably low as in 1968, when the
rate of 12.74 per 1,000 live births (Greater London 18.6) will probably stand as a record
for many years. In 1969, the rate was 15 (Greater London 17.9) and there were 51 deaths,
six more than in the previous year. In spite of the rise, this is still an exceptionally low
figure. Stillbirths fell from a rate of 13.68 to 13, with fi ve fewer.
The percentage of live births that are illegitimate dropped from 7.50 to 6.09. A
temporary drop; a change in morals; the Abortion Act; or the Pill?
There was a drop in the adjusted general death rate from 11.08 to 10.66 (93 fewer
deaths) but this statistic can be so influenced by variable factors such as weather,
influenza, etc., that there is no occasion yet to cheer. We have become accustomed to
the statement that "there were no maternal deaths"; 1969 was no exception.
As far as infectious disease is concerned the year was uneventful. This maybe is
the reason why so much fuss is made of the occasional unusual case that does occur,
such as the case of anthrax, or recently, when a healthy typhoid carrier, who had not
been abroad for a number of years, came to the attention of the national press. The
reporter rang me up and said that their informant (naturally anonymous) had told them it
was a case of cholera and we were concealing the information!