Report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea for the year 1921.

  • Battersea (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
[1922]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea for the year 1921. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    5 To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the health and sanitary state of the Borough of Battersea for the year 1921. The Census which was taken on the 19th June shows that the population of the Borough is practically stationary. It is clear that Battersea has reached the limit of its capacity for expansion, there being no ground left to build on. As a matter of fact, the Borough might with advantage be less densely populated. In one or two of the lower Wards, for instance, the density of population is two or three times as great as that of the more favourably situated districts of the Borough, and this unsatisfactory distribution of population is responsible for overcrowding and other sanitary evils, which are reflected in the vital and morbid statistics of these areas. It will be noted from an inspection of the vital and morbid statistics for the year 1921 that the Borough has maintained a high standard of health. The general death-rate (12.2 per 1,000) is one of the lowest, if not actually the lowest, on record. In 1910 the death rate, calculated on the estimated population given by the Registrar General for that year was ll.3 per 1,000, but the Census taken in the following year (1911) showed the actual population to be some twenty thousand less than that estimated for the previous year, so that it may be assumed with reasonable certainty that the death-rates for the years immediately preceding the Census of 1911 were understated. The infantile mortality-rate was also lower than in any previous year. The same gratifying feature characterise the morbid statistics for the year 1921, notwithstanding that there was a greatly increased prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria with a corresponding rise, especially as regards the last-mentioned disease, in the fatality-rate for these diseases. The activities of the Council's Health Department were again mainly centred round the continued development of their Maternity and Child Welfare and Housing schemes. With regard to the first mentioned, very extensive progress was made in connection with the Maternity Hospital and its ancillary services. The hospital, contain ing 30 beds, disposed in two buildings, was officially opened by the Mayor and Mayoress on the 5th March. During the year the work in connection with the hospital was further extended by the inauguration of the district Midwifery service and the opening of the new central Ante-natal and Special Clinics. In other directions also the Maternity and Child Welfare scheme was improved and expanded, and now includes practically all the elements of a comprehensive scheme. In regard to Housing, the activities of the Council were mainly directed to the provision of additional housing accommodation so far as the opportunities at their disposal permitted, and more especially to the repair of unfit houses. It is to be regretted, however, that no further progress was made with any of the scheduled insanitary areas, and it became abundantly evident as the year progressed that there was little prospect of this most useful and promising feature of the Council's housing activities being proceeded with, owing, it was understood, to the present financial embarrassment of the nation rendering it necessary for the Government to curtail expenditure on Assisted Housing schemes. Notwithstanding the restricted scope which the Council's Housing measures had in consequence to assume, considerable progress was made in regard to the repair of unfit houses, and much useful work both under the Housing and Public Health Acts was carried out—details of which will be found in the section of the Report dealing with Housing. It is again my privilege to express my acknowledgments to the Chairmen and Members of the Health, Maternity and Housing Com mittees, and to the Members of the Council generally, for their support and sympathetic consideration. To my colleagues, the Chief Officers of the Council, and to the staff of the Public Health Department, my thanks are also due for assistance always willingly rendered. G. Quin LENNANE, Medical Officer of Health.
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