London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Walthamstow 1909

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]

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22
The deaths of residents dying without the district, as far as I was able
to get returns, are now added.
These were 42 at the Workhouse, 167 at the Infirmary, 15 at the
Isolation Hospital, and 10 transmitted from Health Officers elsewhere.
These latter do not embrace all the deaths of Walthamstow's inhabitants,
and until a proper system of interchange, whereby the deaths
wherever occurring would be transferred to the appropriate locality, is
established, a death-rate based on the returns received from the local
Registrar will be considerably less than that assigned to it by the
Registrar-General.
Week by week I have compared the death and birth returns as sent
to me, with those given in the weekly reports of the Registrar-General,
and I cannot remember the figures agreeing for a single week.
I accept the figures from Somerset House as correct, and from the
four quarterly returns of the Registrar-General I find that 101 persons
belonging to this district have died during the year, and of whom we
have no record.
This I account for by the large number of our people, who die in the
London Hospitals and elsewhere, being registered in the localities where
death takes place; and while probably such deaths are excluded by the
Medical Officers of Health concerned, no intimation of such is sent
here, but when the death certificate reaches Somerset House the allocation
is made to this district.
One would expect for the "76 Great Towns" that the RegistrarGeneral
would transmit the particulars of such deaths, so that a correct
appreciation of the mortality figures might be of service to those entrusted
with the care of the public health.
I have referred in previous reports to the loose certification of death,
and the little real reliance that can be placed on many of the causes
assigned; and it is to be hoped that at an early date changes may be
made in the present methods of registration, and the transmitting of
returns to local authorities.
The total deaths ascertained for the year were 1,205— males 610,
females 595.