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

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Kensington 1922

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]

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31
The Committee of the Telford Road Baby Clinic have recently completed an agreement with
the County Council under which a limited number of school children will be treated at the Clinic
for certain minor defects and ailments discovered at the School Medical Examinations. In this
respect they have met a much-felt want and their decision will enormously enhance the value of
the Clinic in North Kensington.
There is need of a Centre in North Kensington to which children under school age can be
referred for treatment by the doctors at the Infant Welfare Centres and if some satisfactory
arrangement could be arrived at so that the Telford Road Clinic could be made to serve purely as
a Treatment Centre for infants and school children, the Kensington Child Welfare Scheme would
be a splendid example of what could be achieved by voluntary effort.
LADBROKE ROAD BABY IN-PATIENT HOSPITAL.
This institution, which was opened in 1919, has 19 beds for the treatment of sub-acute and
chronic diseases.

Records for the year 1922:—

Number of infants in residence at commencement of year16
Number of admissions during the year98
Number of discharges during the year90
Number of deaths during the year7
Number in residence at end of year17
Average duration of stay in hospital46 days

As in previous years the Council made a grant of £200 to the Authorities of the Hospital towards
the maintenance for a further period of twelve months of two beds therein, to be placed at the
disposal of the Infant Welfare Centres serving the Borough, the grant to be subject to the same
conditions as in 1921, viz: that provision shall be made for the doctors in attendance at the
Centres to continue in the hospital, if they so desire, the supervision of the cases recommended by
them, and that the Medical Officer of Health shall continue a representative of the Council on the
Committee of Management and shall be furnished with the names and addresses of patients
admitted from within the Borough, together with the dates of their admission and discharge.
Although two beds are reserved for children recommended from the various Kensington Welfare
Centres, all the beds are available for children belonging to the Borough.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S HOSPITAL ANTE-NATAL CLINIC,
No. 176, LADBROKE GROVE.
This Clinic was opened by the Queen Charlotte's Hospital Authorities in June, 1921, at their
District Nurses' Home, which is situated a little north of the Ladbroke Grove Railway Station—a
point easily accessible to the majority of North Kensington mothers.
During the year 1922, 1,028 individual mothers attended the ante-natal sessions and the total
attendances amounted to 1,559.
MIDWIFERY ARRANGEMENTS.
The number of home confinements attended by the staff of the North Kensington Queen
Charlotte's District Nurses' Home during 1922 was 991, a very large majority of these being
Kensington cases.
Up to the present time no midwifery scheme has been adopted by the Borough Council,
although at one period it seemed probable that the Queen Charlotte's Hospital Authorities would
establish a Maternity Home in North Kensington and that the Council would contribute towards
the cost of maintenance of an agreed number of beds.
At the beginning of the year 1922 the private midwife who practised amongst working class
mothers in South Kensington, and who had always worked in close co-operation with the Earl's
Court Infant Welfare Centre, was obliged to retire owing to ill-heath. The practice was small and
it appeared unlikely that another midwife would establish herself in a district where the patients
were so few and scattered over such a wide area. In these circumstances the Committee of the
Earl's Court Centre decided to employ a midwife and to collect such fees in respect of her services
as the patients could pay, in order that the working class mothers in South Kensington should not
be without the services of a competent midwife who resided within reasonable distance.
The midwife commenced practice on January 23rd, 1922, and up to the end of the year had
attended 54 confinements. As was anticipated, the scheme was not at once financially successful,
but judging by the increasing number of cases being booked, the Committee of the Earl's Court
Centre may look forward with confidence to the year 1923.
The Borough Council showed their appreciation of this movement by contributing a sum of
£25 towards the deficit which the Centre suffered during the year.