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Welfare Committee): to present a fortnightly report on cases in the
Home : to state the number of applications received for admission, the
number accepted for admission, the number refused, the number
assessed at various amounts, the number received from the Ante-Natal
clinic : to give financial details presented by the Matron each 14 days.
Subsequently it was agreed that applicants need not attend the SubCommittee
meeting when their applications were being considered.
Any desirous of interviewing the Committee could do so after receiving
intimation of the assessments made. Prior to being passed for the
Home all applicants have to attend the Ante-Natal Centre for
examination and supervision by Dr. Hill. In the event of any
abnormalty of a major kind being diagnosed, prompt and sympathetic
steps are taken with a view to treatment. Such cases are usually
referred to Dr. Gilliatt at King's College Hospital, no charge being
made to the Borough Council. As regards the fees charged to the
expectant mothers by the Councd, there is no printed form or scale of
fees; it was felt that elasticity was needed, hard cases might need
special consideration; moreover, the Ministry of Health had laid it
down that poverty should not be a bar to acceptance for admission.
The Committee, however, consider the answeis given on the
application form as to the wages, rent, number and ages of children,
and maternity benefit, whilst special expenditure incurred, say, through
travelling to work, is taken cognisance of. As a rule, the rent is
deducted from the earnings and 10s. is deducted for each child, the
balance forming the necessary fee. An average charge is about
£2 15s. Od. a week; though in all cases admitted from outside the
Borough, a charge of £4 4s. Od. per week is made. If a mother, for
some reason, stays over the usual 14 days in the Home, a charge of
three shillings a day is made, from and including the seventeenth day.
There is more than one way in which comparisons can be made
between various Metropolitan Maternity Homes respecting their
running costs. One method is misleading; this is the comparison on
the " per patient week " basis. The natural heads of expenditure in a
home vary. Establishment and administration charges remain at full,
whether the home is full or not, while provisions and medical requisites
move with the number of patients. It is because of this fact that
unless a series of homes are full for a given period, comparison on the
cost " per patient week" basis is misleading. The better way of