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81
The number of institutional confinements in Hornsey is
undoubtedly increased by the existence in that borough of the
Alexandra Maternity Home which accommodates over 600 Hornsey
births each year. In Tottenham, on the other hand, there is
evidence that hospital accommodation is more limited and is always
taken up. The Tottenham patients make use largely of the North
Middlesex Hospital and the Mothers' Hospital, Clapton. These,
together with the Alexandra Maternity Home, take nearly two-thirds
of the institutional births of the area, and with all of them
there is close co-operation. The majority of the remainder of
the institutional confinements take place in hospitals in Central
London, although some 47 mothers were last year confined at private
or voluntary assisted nursing homes in Hornsey.
The trend to hospital confinements is a National one and the
Minister of Health issued a circular on the subject in August 1951
stating that though it was not possible to lay down a proportion
of births for which hospital or maternity home beds should be
provided, in general, hospital provision is required on medical
or social grounds for about half the confinements. In this area
well over half of the confinements are in institutions, but at the
same time some of the 17% of home confinements should have been in
hospitals and closer co-operation than already exists is needed to
ensure that the.right patients are admitted to maternity beds.

Ante-natal Clinics
The average attendance at ante-natal clinics continues to
decline but has not yet reached the stage where any curtailment
in the number of sessions held is desirable. The following table