London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Fulham 1933
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Fulham Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
50
It should be understood that the Maternity Home
is essentially a Home and not a Hospital, and cases
in which any abnormality is to be anticipated are
not admitted. Members of the nursing staff of the
Maternity Home attend twice weekly at the Antenatal
clinics to learn ante-natal care, and to afford
the women opportunities of seeing beforehand the
nurses who will be responsible for them at their
confinement. The advantage is mutual.
We prepare trained nurses for the certificate of
the Central Midwives Board.
The following is a record of the work done during the year 1933:—
| Cases admitted | 206 |
| Average duration of stay (days) | 14 |
| Number of cases notified as puerperal sepsis | — |
| Number of cases notified as ophthalmia neonatorum | 3 |
| Number of cases of infectious disease | - |
| Number of infants not entirely breast-fed while in the Institution | - |
| Number of maternal deaths | - |
| Number of foetal deaths (stillborn or within ten days of birth) | 4 |
The minimum fee is £3 for the fortnight at the
Maternity Home and this is the normal duration
of treatment. The highest fee charged during 1933
was £6-7-6 for the two weeks and the average
fee charged was £4-8-10. The net cost per patient
week to the Council for the financial year
1933-34 was £2-7-4.
Day Nursery.
The Fulham Day Nursery is situated at Eridge
House, Fulham Park Road, S.W.6., and is under
the control of a Voluntary Committee. The Council
makes a grant of £626 per annum to the Day
Nursery, in addition to providing the services of
myself and the Assistant Medical Officer for
Maternity and Child Welfare as Medical Officers.
The institution is visited by one or other of us
four times weekly.