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65
serve adequately the needs of the district in which it is placed, not
only with regard to the supervision of infancy and child life up to
five years of age, but also the necessary medical treatment of
school children and the dental treatment of mothers with any other
development in this direction which Government regulations may
impose upon us in the future. Further the scheme should make
adequate provision for a Sick Nursery for Infants and Young
Children and a Convalescent Home for Mothers. This is one
single Institution, quite distinct and separate from any Centre.
These recommendations are amplified in the succeeding paragraphs.
Children's Sick Nursery and Mothers' Convalescent Home.
The Board in their circular have laid special stress upon the
need of this provision in several paragraphs, and I know personally
from members of the medical staff of the Local Government
Board that this is looked upon as a very important and necessary
section of the Maternity and Child Welfare scheme in the
Borough. The Sick Nurserv now at London Road was originally
designed to provide 6 cots, but, owing to the very limited space, it
has been found that 5 cots is the maximum which can be accommodated
; even that is one more than there should be according to
the Local Government Board's recommendation. The cots have
been kept constantly full, and the medical officers of the centres
have frequently expressed to me the need of greater accommodation
for the treatment of the ordinary dietetic and other ailments
of infancy and young childhood.
The cases admitted are not cases of acute illness such as would
properly go to a fully equipped hospital. They are mostly cases
of dietetic or co-related ailments for which careful supervision,
nursing and feeding and hygienic surroundings are essential.
These conditions are not otherwise obtainable in a very considerable
number of cases, as the mothers, however well meaning, are
untrained, and the home conditions do not provide the necessary
satisfactory surroundings for the recovery of health. The children
themselves are not intrinsically unfit, they are principally
children whose health is wrong from improper rearing. It is, in
mv opinion, quite certain that there is an immediate need for an
institution of the kind recommended, and it is clearly evident that
only an institution situated in exceptionally healthy surroundings
can properly fulfil the function of such a home as this is meant to
be. There are some points which ought to receive special attention
in selecting a site for such an institution. The site should be
high, airy and sunny, so arranged that the inmates may be treated