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75
CHILD LIFE PROTECTION.
The Medical Officer of Health is the Officer authorised to
receive the notices required to be given under Part III of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1936, relating to Child Life Protection,
and each of the Health Visitors has been appointed an Infant
Life Protection Visitor.
At the end of 1937 there were 176 foster-mothers on the Register
and the number of foster children for whom they were registered
was 324.
Nursing Service.
Arrangements have been made with various nursing Assotions
in the Borough for their nurses to attend cases of Measles,
Whooping Cough, Ophthalmia Neonatorum, Infantile Diarrhoea,
Malaria,, Dysentery, Pneumonia, Influenza, Puerperal Fever and
Puerperal Pyrexia, at my request. A fee of 1s. 3d. is paid for
each visit to these cases, except in Balham where a special grant
of £80 per annum is paid by the Council to the Ranyard Nurses
for the services of the nurse in this area.
In October, 1936, the Council decided to extend these arrangements
so as to include the home nursing of all minor
ailments in children under five years of age. This decision was
arrived at as a result of the Council's consideration of Ministry of
Health Circular, 1550, dated 29th May, 1936, in which the need
for more supervision of the health of children between the ages
of eighteen months and five years was stressed. There has been
a large demand for this extension of the Nursing Services.
Full particulars of the number of cases and visits made by
the nurses are given in Table XXXII. 786 cases were visited
during the year under these arrangements, and 10,790 visits were
made.