London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Surbiton 1959
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Surbiton]
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Births: The number of live births for 1959 is 853 and
compares with 867 for 1958. The birth rate is 13.38 per 1,000
of the population compared with 13.64 for the previous year.
Deaths: The number of deaths recorded in 1959 is 615 compared
with 641 for 1958. This gives a death rate of 9.64 per
thousand of the population compared with 10.08 for 1958.
The number of deaths of infants under one year in 1959 is
15giving an Infant Mortality Rate of 17.58 compared with a rate
of 16.14 for 1958. The causes of death of these infants will
be seen on page 10.
Causes of death: The main causes of death during 1959 were:-
Heart 226
Cancer 116
Vascular lesions of
Nervous System 82
This follows a similar order to that of the preceding
years and each group is slightly larger than it was last year.
In view of the attention given to the relationships between smoking and lung cancer the relevant figures for Surbiton residents is given below:-
| 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | |
| Deaths from cancer of the lung and bronchus | 19 | 5 | 21 | 2 | 24 | 6 | 19 | 26 | 3 | 22 | 4 | |
| TOTAL | 24 | 23 | 30 | 23 | 29 | 26 _ | ||||||
Housing: As in the two previous years, 1959 has been a year of
activity in private building. The preoccupation of the
developing companies with programmes of demolition of large family
houses and packing into their site as many small flats as can be
allowed still continues.
These new small units lack space and storage accommodation,
and very often have no means for the incineration of waste
materials requiring such disposal.
Once the existing order of a neighbourhood is destroyed there
is opportunity for full scope in planning, for example, new
conception of communities in larger blocks of flats going higher,
with greater densities to allow for the inclusion of further
amenities, should be accepted. This should include adequate space,
suitable waste and refuse disposal arrangements, and other family
requirements, whilst at the same time saving ground space for.
off-street parking, garages and landscape gardening, absolutely
necessary to maintain and improve the attractive open nature of the
district.
This needs the acceptance of more comprehensive changes in
buildings and their grouping than is practised at present, because
3.