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Clinic would be exceptionally easy, and the provision of a Waiting Room,
Consulting Room, and two Dressing Rooms could be made at small cost,
and I would recommend that the Committee take steps to secure the
reversion of the tenancy of these premises for the purpose of an AnteNatal
Clinic The estimated cost of establishing a Clinic here would be
as follows— £
A aptation and Equipment of premises 150
Maintenance for eight months to end of present
financial year 120
Total £270
2. Centre.—This term is oi.e ordinarily given to a place where
some or all of the various works connected with Maternity and Child
Welfare are carried out, and it appears to me that, given premises
commodious enough, the larger the number of activities carried out at
the Centre, the greater will be the amount of success likely to be
achieved. The Hampstead Centre weighed in 1918, 450 Hampstead
babies. This is 50 per cent, of the nett births of the Borough, and if
one lefers to the record it will be seen that Kilburn is far ahead
of the rest, and it is also interesting to note that a greater number
of Hampstead babies attended the Centre in the Town Ward than in
Lisburn Road. The number of deaths among these 450 babies was 7,
and their infantile mortality rate was 15 per 1, 00 as against 69 for the
whole Borough. The various services carried out in Hampstead have
achieved considerable success, but not perhaps so much as if they were
more co-ordinated, or, so to speak, blended. Thus, I am of opinion, that
if upon the Eastern side of the Borough a Day Nursery,an Infant Welfare
Centre, an Ante-Natal Clinic and a Clinic for the medical treatment of
cases found needing it were housed under one roof, and as such closely
co-ordinated with the work of the Nursing Associations, further success
would attend their endeavours, and new fields of effort would b, opened.
Such a combination would allow of larger and more commodious premises
being utilised, one section would strengthen the other and add to their
clientele, and would render new fields, such as the provision of cots much
easier and more likely to be successful, and I would certainly advise the
Commit lee to consider it.
The provision of cots is an important question. It not infrequently
happens that infants are encountered who do not thrive although
attending a Centre, and yet who are not ill enough to go to a Hospital;
and the use of these cots should be restricted to cases of nutritional
disorder, and cases needing observation. The Board's grant being
available for the provision of cots or beds for children up to five years
of age, it is open to the Council to contract with a Hospital for this
purpose; the cost per cot in that case would be about £50 per annum.
If, however, premises suitable can be secured I believe better results
would be obtained by establishing cots in connection with the existing
Centres, rather than by contracting with the Hospitals. But the
experiment should be only a small one at first, probably six or eight
cots would be sufficient for Hampstead.