London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Kensington 1926

The annual report on the health of the Borough for the year1926

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For the splendid services rendered, the Council paid to the Association in 1926 a grant of £200.
A trained nurse is employed by the Golborne Infant Welfare Centre to undertake home
nursing of expectant and nursing mothers and infants in the very poor area allocated to that Centre.

The cases attended and visits paid by the Golborne Home Nurse during the past year are given in the following table:—

Cases Attended.Visits Paid.
Adults1035
Children under 5 years of age2722,531
Totals2822,566
Bronchitis34172
Ear Discharges34815
Measles1697
Minor Ailments1881,447
Totals2722,531

MIDWIFERY ARRANGEMENTS.
The Borough is well served in this respect. The Queen Charlotte's Hospital Authorities
maintain a District Nurses' Home in Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington, and during the year
members of the staff thereat conducted 862 confinements, of which 822 were in Kensington
homes. The Borough Council maintain a Maternity Home with ten beds and the Guardians also
have a ward of ten beds for the confinement of poor women.
The number of confinements dealt with by these three organisations, together with those
taking place in outlying hospitals, leaves but a comparatively small number to be attended by
private doctors and midwives in the homes.
In addition to the six ante-natal clinics at the infant welfare centres in the Borough, a
similar clinic is maintained by the Queen Charlotte's Hospital authorities at their District Nurses'
Home, which is situated a little to the north of Ladbroke Grove Railway Station—a point easily
accessible to the majority of North Kensington mothers. The record of work at the Queen Charlotte's
Clinic for 1926 is as follows:—
Number of individual expectant women who attended the ante-natal
sessions 862
Number of Kensington cases 822
Number from other Boroughs 40
Total number of attendances of all ante-natal cases 2,711
The medical work at this ante-natal clinic is performed by the doctors of the Hospital.
AMBULANCE FACILITIES.
Ambulances for infectious, accident and maternity cases are provided by the Metropolitan
Asylums Board and the London County Council, and during the year the service proved efficient
OTHER HEALTH SERVICES.
There are no fever hospitals within the Borough, but several provided by the Metropolitan
Asylums Board are within easy reach.
The arrangements for the treatment of tuberculosis and the organisation for maternity and
child welfare work are discussed further on in this report.
Kensington enjoys a great advantage in possessing a large number of ladies and gentlemen
who give freely of their time and money to voluntary bodies interested in the health and welfare
of the poorer members of the community. Not only are all the maternity and child welfare institutions
in Kensington organised on a voluntary basis, but there are at work in the Borough two
branches of the Charity Organisation Society, a branch of the Invalid Children's Aid Association,
a branch of the British Red Cross Society, the Kensington Council of Social Service, School Care
Committees, a. Tuberculosis Care Committee and a number of other bodies managed and financed
on voluntary lines by Kensington residents. The Council have endeavoured with marked success
to work in close co-operation with these organisations and the relationship between them has
always been a happy one.