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OTHER LOCAL AUTHORITY HEALTH SERVICES.
Since 1948 the local Council has been represented on the S.E.
Divisional Health Sub-Committee of the County Health Committee
and the corresponding Educational Executive, which bodies have
certain specified powers and responsibilities for some of the allied
Health Services. The Medical Officer of Health for this District
and his Deputy, who hold similar positions in the Caterham and
Warlingham Urban District, are the responsible officers for the
Divisional Health Services, and deal to a limited extent, among
other things with the maintenance and detailed organisation of the
following branches.
Maternity Clinics.
Residents are welcome to attend the Clinics enumerated in
tabular form at the end of this part of the Report, the arrangements
for which have not been altered this year.
Since the National Health Service Act has been implemented,
prospective Mothers wishing to take advantage of its provisions
may arrange for their confinements with
(1) a doctor providing midwifery service and a maternity
nurse, or
(2) a midwife, the doctor of their choice being on call in
emergency, or
(3) a hospital, where a bed may be reserved in certain circumstances.
Expectant mothers making arrangements (2) or (3) usually
attend the Council's Maternity Clinics but private doctors can also
refer their cases for special purposes, e.g., blood tests for Rhesus
factor, etc.
Conversely in some cases the District Midwives assist general
practitioners at ante-natal sessions in their surgeries.
It may be of interest to note some of the numerical effects
of these arrangements.
In 1947 the number of new ante-natal cases who attended the
3 local clinics was 434 representing 41% of the registered births
(53% in 1945/6).
In 1954 only 181 new cases attended these clinics (22%) but a
few more may have attended the Warlingham and Caterham Hill
clinics. The average attendance per session meanwhile dropped
from 24 to 10, the reduction at Selsdon being the most marked.
(To some extent the decrease in 1954 may have been due to
changes in the staff and holding 3 morning instead of afternoon
sessions.)
Corresponding with this the number of residents who were
confined in the Redhill County and Purley Hospitals rose from
335 in 1947 to 393 in 1954, the increase chiefly affecting the Purley
Hospital admissions. (In 1954 approximately 28% of the local
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