[Report 1921] / Medical Officer of Health, Hastings County Borough.

  • Hastings (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1921] / Medical Officer of Health, Hastings County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN, AND BURGESSES OF THE COUNTY BOROUGH OF HASTINGS. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit to you my Annual Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Borough in the year 1921. In accordance with the directions of the Health Ministry the Report on this occasion consists chiefly of summaries and statis- tical tables embodying the result of the year’s work in the various services connected with the Sanitary Department. The birth-rate which, in the exceptional circumstances pre- vailing in 1920, reached 19 1 per thousand, relapsed in 1921 to the more normal figure for this District of 14‘3 ; the number of births declining from 1,146 to 850. Nett deaths of persons belonging to the Borough which in 1920, were 850, were 852 in 1921, and the death-rate, 14*3, was practically the same in both years, and the corrected death-rate 12 0 per thousand of population. The rate of infantile mortality was again very low being only 52 per thousand of births against 51 in 1920. Taking the last two years together the rate of in- fantile mortality has been less in Hastings than in any of the other 96 great towns of England and Wales. Notifications of Infectious Diseases w7ere unusually few in number. Enteric Fever was conspicuous by its absence, and the death-rate from the seven chief epidemic diseases was only 0T7 per thousand of the population. * Considerable progress was made with the erection of the Council houses for the working classes ; but the completion of these leaves quite untouched the problem of providing decent accommodation for the poorest and the worst housed. In conclusion I have to tender my sincere thanks to the Members of the Public Health Committee and to other Members of your Council for the assistance alw’ays afforded to myself and my staff in the execution of our many and varied duties. I am, Ladies and Gentlemen, Yours faithfully, A. SCARLYN WILSON, D.P.H., Medical Officer of Health. Town Hall Chambers, Queen’s Road, Hastings.