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6
Metrpolitan Borough of Hackney
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1946
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Hackney, E.8.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.
Ministry of Health Circular 13/47 requests that annual
reports of Medical Officers of Health for 1946 be prepared in the
abridged form which has been adopted since the outbreak of the war.
Although the year 1946 was a very satisfactory one from the
point of view of the state of the mortality and infectious disease
rates, it was a year of increasing difficulty for the staff of the
Department. The population of the Borough dropped from 205,100
in 1939 to 123,720 in 1941, and had reached 155,560 by mid-1946,
and is still increasing. This return of the population, coupled with
the abnormal birthrate, gave rise to a demand for health services
which has been met with very great difficulty in view of the reduction
in the number of available clinic premises and of the staff of sanitary
inspectors and health visitors. The Department has been under
strength as regards these two classes of officers since the outbreak
of war, and repeated efforts to recruit staff have met with little
success.
The greatly increased number of complaints of housing
defects, coupled with the greater difficulty of securing compliance
with notices due to the shortage of labour and materials and the