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The following report on the Municipal Lying-in Hostel was
made to the Committee on the 13th November, 1923: —
"The Municipal Lying-in Hostel was established in 1919,
and equipped and run for nearly twelve months at a cost of
£2,000. This was only done owing to the generous action of
the American Bed Cross Society in giving us a donation of
this amount, through the Secretary of the Federation for
Maternity and Child Welfare. The costs for the subsequent
years were as follows: — March 31st, 1921, £2,321; March
31st, 1922, £2,520; March 31st, 1923, £2,075; and the
estimate for the present year is £1,840. The total net cost
per patient per week for the year ended March, 1923, was
£7 2s. 8d., and the receipts from patients were £1 14s. 4d.
per week, showing a loss per patient of £5 7s. 7d. per week,
or a total loss on every patient in the Home of £10 15s. 2d.
per fortnight. The number of patients attended to in the
first year was 155, and for the year ended March 31st, 1923,
138. The number of patients in the first nine months of 1922
were 102, and in the first nine months of this year 86. The
bookings have gradually decreased from 75 in March, 1921,
to 28 now. For the year ended March 31st, 1923, only 66
per cent, of the beds in the Hostel were occupied, and the
question now comes whether the Borough is getting value
for the money expended, for it is evident that the Hostel has
been, and is being, run at a very serious loss. The original
idea of the Hostel was to provide accommodation for women
of the working classes who wished to be confined and had no
proper accommodation in their own homes. At that time
there was another difficulty, inasmuch as there were only five
midwives practising in Bermondsey, as against ten now.
Only a very small number of medical practitioners in the
Borough were attending confinements at the date of the establishment
of the Hostel, partly owing to the large amount of
work many had to do on the Panel, and partly owing to many
of the practitioners being somewhat advanced in years. Many
of these conditions are changed nowadays, and many of the