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
City of Westminster 1930
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
This page requires JavaScript
142
There s a tendency for women from other districts to come into
Westminster institutions for their confinements. The hospital beds
available are as follows:—Charing Cross, 15; St. George's, 11; Westminster,
15; St. Stephen's, 28. 843 women from other districts were
confined in Westminster and 476 women belonging to the City were
delivered in the hospitals mentioned—the number in St. Stephen's alone
being 237.
The number of children born to Westminster parents in institutions
outside the City numbered 538.
The following table shows the number of confinements in the hospitals
mentioned:—
| Charing Cross Hospital: 410, of which 54 were Westminster cases. |
| St. George's Hospital: 244, of which 31 were Westminster cases. |
| Westminster Hospital: 340, of which 148 were Westminster cases. |
| Sheffield St. Hospital: 60, of which 3 were Westminster cases. |
| St. Stephen's Hospital: 237. |
Infancy and Early Childhood.—At the centres in the City weekly
clinics are held for the purpose of giving medical advice.
The following figures give an approximate number of the births in
the four areas divided for the purposes of maternity and child
welfare:—
14, Westbourne St. 15, Bessborough St. 30, Page St. 9, Frith St.
430 410 281 238
The health visitors attached to those centres visit the homes for
the purpose of supplementing the instructions of the medical officers,
and of advising as to how those instructions should be carried out. Home
visiting is of prime importance in maternity and child welfare, and its
place cannot be taken by teaching groups of mothers at the centre. In
the home the visitor, by seeing the actual conditions, can appreciate any
difficulties with which the mother may be contending, and much can be
cleared up in the course of a quiet talk. Visits of inquiry are necessary
in cases of ophthalmia, measles, and other infectious diseases. The