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27
Clinics in St. Mary's Convalescent Home, Birchington, and the
Burnett Cottage Home, Heme Bay, through the Council's Maternity
and Child Welfare Scheme. The average stay was 2 weeks and the
cost amounted to £99 6s. 2d. The Council contributed £60 18s. 0d.,
and the remainder was provided by a voluntary Association working
in the district and by the patients themselves.
An extension of this useful work is under consideration.
Ante-Natal Work.
The work of the Ante-Natal Clinics which has been fully
described in previous Annual Reports, was carried on with unabated
activity during 1927. This work is under the direction of Miss
Alice Bloomfield, M.D., F.R.C.S., who attends four sessions weekly,
three at the Borough Maternity Hospital Out-patients Department,
and one at the Latchmere Baths Centre, and who reports as
follows:—
Tuesday Afternoon, Special Clinic.—This has been very well
attended, the average attendance at each Session—about 13—
having increased from the previous year: 712 new patients and
77 old patients were seen in all, making a total of 789. The majority
of them attended for blood tests, of which 12 were positive, but 102
patients were seen for other causes, including vaginal discharge
during pregnancy, &c.
Wednesday and Thursday Mornings at Borough Maternity
Hospital.—These Clinics have been extremely well attended, a
large proportion of the patients being primiparse. The expectant
mothers are, on the whole, tending to come up at an earlier date in
pregnancy, i.e., 3rd, 4th and 5th months to book for their confinements.
I consider this should be encouraged as it allows for a
thorough general and special examination of the patient at a period
in pregnancy when the diagnosis and treatment of organic disease
in the mother—24 cases of cardiac disease and 7 cases of Tuberculosis
were seen at the Ante-Natal Clinics in 1927—and the prophylaxis
of ill-health in the later months of pregnancy by attention
to details of hygiene, care of teeth, etc., can be expected to have
good results.
Friday Morning, Latchmere Baths.—This clinic continues to be
well attended. New cases here preponderate both because they
are numerous and also for the reason that in the later months of
pregnancy cases who are to be confined in the Borough Maternity
Hospital are transferred to the Maternity Home clinics.
Many patients who have engaged the Borough Midwife attended
this clinic, where they derive the considerable advantage of being
examined by myself and the Borough Midwife on the same occasion,
with benefit to both nurse and patient.