View report page

20
by the Borough Council of Greenwich it appears that in
17 London boroughs one or more Health Visitors have
been appointed, and there is a unanimous consensus of
opinion as to their great utility and to the appreciation
of their services shown by the mothers visited, while
similar reports come from nearly all the provincial
towns, and in face of this it is difficult to understand
the attitude of the Council.
Voluntary efforts have fortunately to some extent
compensated for the neglect by the Sanitary Authority,
and the efforts made by the Fulham School for Mothers
deserve cordial recognition.
The report of its Committee for 1911, shows a
noticeable progress in the character of the work done
and the success attained. To the consultations held at
92 Greyhound Road and the branch at Broughton
Road Hall, 483 babies were brought who were seen by
one or other of the three Honorary Medical Officers,
who give their services, and 4,393 attendances were
recorded, an increase as compared with 1910 of 157
babies and 2,106 attendances.
So far as could be ascertained 20 deaths occurred
among the children registered at the Consultations, so
that whereas 11.5 per cent, of the babies born attended
the School, only 4 per cent, of the deaths in the borough
of infants under one year of age occurred among them,
and even if all the deaths of infants under four weeks of
age be eliminated, which admits of a fairer comparison,
the mortality of the School babies was less than half that
of those not attending. Especial importance is attached
by the Committee to the necessity for supplementing the
advice given at the Consultations by home supervision,
and so impressed were they by the contrast between
the results obtained during the epidemic period last year,
in the cases in which by frequent visiting the Superintendent
was able to ensure the doctor's instructions
being carried out, and those in which little or no home
supervision could be exercised, that they have decided to
appoint another Health Visitor, who will be able to