London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hammersmith 1922
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health of the Borough of Hammersmith for the year 1922
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68
Health Visitors. —Three Health Visitors were engaged, as
in former years, in visits of enquiry to Births, Infant Deaths,
cases of Ophthalmia Neonatorum, Puerperal Fever, and other
diseases of mothers and young children ; they have also taken
an active part in the work of the Voluntary Infant Welfare
Centres.
The visits paid are enumerated in detail below :—
| First visits | 2,301 |
| Re-visits (under 1 year) | 1,652 |
| Re-visits (1 to 5 years) | 866 |
| Out and removals | 2,032 |
| Special visits | 272 |
| Ophthalmia | 55 |
| Pneumonia | 23 |
| Puerperal Fever | 9 |
| Ante-natal, first visits | 364 |
| Ante-natal, re-visits | 24 |
| Visits to Stillbirths | 54 |
| Visits to Infant Deaths | 157 |
| Total | 7,809 |
| Number of Consultations at Infant Welfare Centres, attended by Health Visitors | 393 |
| Number of Committee Meetings of Voluntary Associations attended | 42 |
| Number of Insanitary Conditions reported by Health Visitors and dealt with by Sanitary Inspectors | 73 |
Number of Consultations at Infant Welfare Centres,
attended by Health Visitors
393
Number of Committee Meetings of Voluntary Associations
attended
42
Number of Insanitary Conditions reported by Health
Visitors and dealt with by Sanitary Inspectors
73
The feeding of the 2,301 infants visited was found to be as follows:—
| Breast-feeding | 2,024 |
| Artificial feeding | 167 |
| Mixed feeding | 110 |
Every effort is made by the Health Visitors to encourage
mothers to breast-feed their infants, and also to induce them to
attend the Consultations at the Infant Welfare Centres, so that
both mother and child may be kept under observation during
the most critical months of the child's life.