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6
HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
MUNICIPAL OFFICES,
380 OLD STREET,
E.C.1.
Telephone: 01-985 3351
To His Worship The Mayor, and to the Aldermen
and Councillors of the London Borough of Hackney
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you my Annual Report for 1967 on the
health of the Borough.
Shortage of staff in certain sections of the Department still continued
to give cause for anxiety. This was particularly so in respect of health
visiting staff and the end of the year again saw a further reduction over the
previous year. The health visitor, apart from any re-arrangement of social
services we may have to consider, remains the basic health worker and visitor
for the developing child and the young mother. She visits as a practitioner in
her own right at least 90% of all new-born babies. As a result she has an
influence on the health of the Borough second to none as she can give mothers
practical advice on how to look after the baby, how to supervise developments
and, not least, how to guard her own health and general well-being. It is
here that every endeavour is made to lay the foundations of health, by the
early detection of ill-health, physical or mental, for everybody in our
community. The Council agreed to the setting up of small flatlets in order
to encourage the recruitment of health visitors who might need small units of
accommodation which they could not otherwise obtain in the borough, but these
had not become available at the end of the year. Further inducements may be
necessary to attract health visitors to Hackney. The position as far as the
Public Health Inspectorate was concerned remained much the same throughout the
year. One or two have left, but possibly because of the inducements that the
Council agreed to, we were able to recruit some Inspectors into the service.
During the year the Senior Supervisory Inspector, Mr. C.V. Frisby, retired.
Mr. Frisby had been the Chief Public Health Inspector in Stoke Newington and
had served with that Borough and the new London Borough of Hackney over a long
period of years. The only other change in the senior staff was the appointment
of a new Chief Dental Officer who commenced work on the 1st February, 1967.
The infant mortality rate, probably one of the more sensitive of social
indices, still remained above national average and above the rates for the
two neighbouring boroughs of Islington and Tower Hamlets, but there was a
significant reduction from 22.2 per thousand live births in 1966, to 19.9 in
1967. The death rate remained approximately the same, the main cause of
death continued to be heart disease of various forms, but deaths due to cancer
of the lung still remained high, at approximately the same order as for 1966.
The birth rate continued to show a slight decline, this being in keeping with
national rates. The decline in the birth rate has tended to ease the pressure
on local maternity hospitals and has also led to a falling off of attendances
at the ante-natal clinics run directly by the Authority. A result of this
has been that the number of ante-natal sessions held at certain of the local
authority clinics has been reduced.
The attendance at child health clinics again, unfortunately, showed a
decline. This may possibly have been due to a decrease in the birth rate,
but may have also reflected the shortage of health visitors, the main worker
concerned in persuading mothers to bring their young babies to the clinics,
where they receive supervision during their early years of life.