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69
Of the 39 summonses to a patient during pregnancy, the most
frequent was on account of ante-partum hæmorrhage in 15 instances,
and 11 were on account of albuminuria, oedema or toxaemia.
Of the 70 summonses to a patient during labour, the reason
given in 53 instances was delayed labour. Abnormal presentation
(including persistent occipito-posterior and breech) accounted for
12, and foetal distress for three. One summons was on account of
abortion.
74 of the 111 summonses to patients in the puerperium were
on account of rupture of the perineum. Post-partum haemorrhage,
with or without adherence of the placenta, was the reason in nine
cases. A raised temperature was the cause in 13 instances, and
phlebitis in two.
Of the 57 summonses to infants, 17 were on account of some
discharge from the eye, feebleness or asphyxia in 31, and some
other abnormal state or condition in five.
Though the local authority is responsible in the first instance
for the payment of the medical practitioners' fees for attendance
on cases to which they have been summoned by midwives' medical
aid notices, in regard to 42 out of the 277 summonses no claim
was made on the authority. Of those made about 33 per cent.
were for sums of 1 guinea, 25 per cent. for sums of 2 guineas and
about 15 per cent. for sums of 5s. 0d., the average being about
25s. 0d. The authority is entitled to recover all or part of the
fee paid out from those responsible for the care of the patient.
It has been decided that no claim should be made in respect of
attendances on cases of any discharge from an infant's eye, of
which there were 13 cases during the year. By the operation of
the scale adopted the full charge was claimed from about 75 per
cent. of the remaining cases, from about 5 per cent. one-half of
the charge was claimed, and in about 20 per cent. of the cases no
claim was made.
MIDWIVES ACT, 1936.
Staff.
The 15 midwives in the Council's service are grouped in teams
of three. The following table is a summarv of the work done by each individual midwife and also by each team.
The fluctuations
in the numbers of cases attended by the midwives is not, of course,
a true index of the work performed by each midwife, as each
would undertake part of the nursing for the rest of the team.