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52
4- Arrangements for—
POST-NATAL.
(1) The treatment in a hospital of complications
arising after parturition, whether
in the mother or in the infant.
(2) The provision of systematic advice and
treatment for infants at a Baby Clinic
or Infant Dispensary.
(3) The continuance of these Clinics and
Dispensaries, so as to be available for
children up to the jage when they are
entered on a school register, i.e., the
register of a Public Elementary School,
Nursery School, Creche, Day Nursery,
School for Mothers or 'other school.
(4) The systematic home visitation of infants
and of children not on a school register
as above defined.
It is not of course expected that a complete scheme
can be initiated at once, but the Board are anxious
that work should not be delayed until a complete
scheme can be formulated, and point lout that the first
step to be taken by the Council is to consider whether
the existing arrangements for home visitation are adequate,
and after the provision of health visitors the
other steps indicated in the model scheme 'can be considered.
As the Committee are aware, I have, for many years,
constantly urged the Council to appoint Health Visitors
in order that they could efficiently Carry out the
duties they undertook when they adopted ithe Notification
of Births Act in 1907. The Council, however,
up to the present, has refused to follow the advice
given, and though their neglect has to some extent
been counterbalanced by voluntary effort, the need
now for an adequate number of Health Visitors is
acutely felt.