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4. Treat minor ailments in the infant when circumstances indicate the
need for this.
5. To enter on a case paper to be provided for each infant, certain
particulars, with notes on advice and treatment given, and the
conditions and progress of the infant.
6. To furnish monthly, a return to the Medical Officer of Health as
to the number of infants seen and treated at the Centre.
Particulars of the attendances at the Centres will be found on
page 68.
Memorandum 14M.C.W., of the Ministry of Health states
that "the District served by a Centre should be as compact as
possible, so that it may be within easy reach of all women wno
should attend it. Not more than 30, or at most, 40 children can
ordinarily be dealt with at one Session." Where the average
attendance exceeds this limit, the Ministry are of opinion, according
to this Circular, that the Centre should be opened on an
additional day each week, or a Branch Centre should be opened.
It is apparent that the Municipal Centres have to serve too
many Health Visiting Districts, but an additional Centre could
not be opened with the present staff and without the consent of
the Ministry of Health.
An Ante-Natal Clinic is also needed very greatly at Northwold
Road Centre to relieve Overbury Street of some of the increasing
work now being carried out by Dr. Wilks.
The Ministry of Health, in the Circular already quoted,
advises that dental treatment for nursing and expectant mothers
should be included in the scope of a Centre whenever possible,
as there is a reason to believe that carious and septic teeth exercise
a specially deleterious effect on health during pregnancy and
lactation.
The Medical Officers of the Centres have repeatedly urged the
necessity for the opening of a Dental Clinic. Proposals were put
forward by the Committee for the establishment of a Dental Clinic
at Eton Mission in co-operation with the London County Council