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102
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
registered during the year, the total number of attendances was
18,564, 384 were transferred to other Centres, 140 removed, 162
were passed on to the London County Council and 47 died.
The total number of ante-natal cases on the registers at the
end of 1919 was 236, and the attendances during the year numbered
554.
The superintendents' visits to infants totalled 11,836 and to
ante-natal cases 580. 115 health talks were given, four courses of
sewing classes were held and two courses of health lectures.
410 attendances were made by the health visitors to the
infant clinics, 72 to the ante-natal clinics, and 99 lectures were given
by them. One of the health visitors is a member of the local committee
of each Infant Welfare Centre, and the medical officer of
health is ex-officio a member of the General Council, whose function
is to co-ordinate the work of the Centres.
Creches.
There are four creches in the Borough—Putney, Balham,
Tooting and Wandsworth. Children are admitted whose mothers,
are obliged to go out to work or who are ill or who for any other
reasonable cause are unable to look after their children.
The creches are voluntary institutions subsidised by grants from
the Borough Council and the Board of Education. The parents
payments vary from 4d. to 10d. per head, a reduction being made
when more than one child from the same family is admitted. The
Wandsworth Day Nursery is also a training school for nurses
who intend to take up creche work. They are admitted as probationers
and serve a term of six months, receiving not only practical
training but also theoretical. The matron gives courses of lectures
which the probationers are bound to attend, and an examination
is held at the end of the course. 80 inspections of the creches
were made during the year by the health visitors, who represent the
Medical Officer of Health on the Committees.
The attendances were: in Putney, 8,793; in Balham, 2,417;
in Tooting, 5,542; and in Wandsworth, 4,780; a total of 21,532.