London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1920
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
35
These officers also attended at several of the Infant Welfare Centres in their respective areas
on the doctors' consultation days, in order to assist in the work and to co-ordinate their efforts with
those of the voluntary workers attached to these institutions.
The work performed by the Health visitors in 1920 is summarised in the followingTable.
| Description of Work. | Districts. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 1. | No. 2. | No. 3. | No. 4. | Total. | |
| Visits to Infants under the age of 21 days. (First Visits) | 887 | 846 | 994 | 466 | 3,193 |
| Re-visits to Infants under the age of 12 months | 672 | 1,094 | 1,219 | 995 | 3,980 |
| Visits to Children between 1 and 5 years | 75 | 608 | 112 | 134 | 929 |
| Still-birth enquiries | 24 | 9 | 10 | 43 | |
| Visits to Ophthalmia Cases | 21 | 20 | 25 | 6 | 72 |
| Return Visits to Ophthalmia Cases | 61 | 67 | 72 | 29 | 229 |
| Visits to Tuberculosis Cases | 20 | 5 | 9 | — | 34 |
| Visits to Puerperal Fever Cases | 5 | 1 | — | 1 | 7 |
| Infantile Death Enquiries | 22 | 68 | 27 | 10 | 127 |
| Investigations re Milk Applications | 142 | 65 | 127 | 15 | 349 |
| Ante-natal Visits | 27 | 48 | 2 | — | 77 |
| Special Visits | 542 | 419 | 465 | 142 | 1,568 |
| Totals | 2,498 | 3,250 | 3,062 | 1,798 | 10,608 |
INFANT WELFARE CENTRES.
An Infant Welfare Centre is primarily an educational institution providing advice and
teaching for the mothers in the care and management of infants and little children, with a view
to maintaining them in good health. Its essential function is to supervise the healthy child rather
than to treat the sick, although the incidental treatment of simple ailments may be included in
its scope.
The guidance and teaching is both individual and collective. Individual advice is given at
the consultations and in the course of home visiting; collective advice is given by means of simple
class teaching. These three branches (consultations, home visiting and class teaching) are
essential to the proper conduct of an Infant Welfare Centre, although other activities may be
included if circumstances permit. Teaching of this description is just as important as instruction
now being given to children in elementary schools. It is as necessary to have a healthy nation as
a wise one, and the present curriculum at an elementary school does not and cannot include all
that instruction on mothercraft which is needed to secure health for the future manhood of the
country.
The Borough has been mapped out into seven areas with one Welfare Centre situated in each,
an attempt having been made to place each home in the area of that Centre most accessible to
the mother.
The following Table shows the main items of work performed at each of the Centres during the year.
| Archer Street | Bramley Road with Kenley Street extension | Campden Hill | Earl's Court, Warwick Road | Gol. borne | Lancaster Road | Raymede | Totals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1—No. of births occurring in the area of the Centre and notified by the Medical Officer of Health to the Welfare Secretary as suitable for Welfare attention | 184 | 888 | 144 | 329 | 441 | 464 | 516 | 2966 |
| 2—No. of sessions at which doctors attended for infant consultations | 99 | 149 | 93 | 99 | 98 | 90 | 99 | 727 |
| 3—No. of sessions at which doctors attended for special ante-natal consultations | 44 | 12 | — | — | 8 | 52 | 116 | |
| 4—No. of individual children under 5 years of age who attended for the first time | 293 | 624 | 111 | 209 | 285 | 276 | 261 | 2059 |
| 5—Total No. of children's attendances at infant consultations. (Only those counted at which the child saw the doctor)... | 2303 | 3276 | 2041 | 2132 | 1338 | 2437 | 2816 | 16343 |
| 6—No. of individual expectant mothers who attended for the first time | 92 | 33 | 16 | 42 | 12 | 21 | 131 | 347 |
| 7—Total No. of expectant mothers' attendances for ante-natal consultations. (Only those counted at which the mother saw the doctor) | 277 | 83 | 44 | 166 | 22 | 56 | 337 | 985 |
| 8—No. of home visits paid by Welfare Sisters | 5738 | 2161 | 1621 | 3459 | 727 | 1131 | 3339 | 18176 |
| 9 —No. of home visits paid by voluntary workers | — | 467 | — | — | 903 | — | 495 | 1865 |