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

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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

Kensington 1930

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

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Table: The work performed by the women health officers in 1930 in regard to maternity and child welfare is summarised in the following table :—

The work performed by the women health officers in 1930 in regard to maternity and child welfare is summarised in the following table :—

Description of Work.Health Officers.
No. 1.No. 2.No. 3.No. 4.No. 5No 6.No. 7.Total.
Visits to infants under the age of '21
days. (First visits)3232772883333281072301,886
Re-visits to infants under the age of 12 months8905574127509564344824,481
Visits to children between 1 and 5 years1,6561,4191,3921,1326468737127,830
Still-birth enquiries7974144752
Visits to Ophthalmia cases248642430
Return visits to Ophthalmia cases—68183214987
Visits to Measles cases311272276323081641481511
Visits to Whooping Cough cases72535815999
Visits to Puerperal Fever cases——2—11—4
Visits to Puerperal Pyrexia cases323761426
Visits to Enteritis cases381643112941142
Infantile death enquiries21201425391024153
Investigations re milk applications8616591101731643503
Ante-natal visits483887113124126173709
Half-days at welfare centres14514314313019699101957
Special visits1331291092362823623741,625

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The visiting in connection with tuberculosis and factories and workshops is dealt with in the
sections of this report dealing with those subjects, and a complete record of the work performed
by each woman health officer during the year appears in Table V of Appendix III.
INFANT WELFARE CENTRES.
For some years past The Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, has been the Patroness of one of
the infant welfare centres in the borough, but during the course of the year Her Royal Highness
graciously consented to be Patroness of each centre not already under Royal Patronage. The
voluntary committees in the borough have expressed their appreciation of this further mark of
the great interest which The Princess displays in the health and welfare of Kensington residents.
In 1930, there were eight voluntary infant welfare centres in Kensington, and the borough has
been divided into a similar number of areas with one centre in each, an attempt having been
made to place each home in the area of that centre which is most accessible to the mother.
Owing to the housing activities of the Borough Council, the Sutton Trust and private individuals,
many dwellings have been erected on the vacant land in the neighbourhood of and on the St. Quintin
Park Estate, which is situated in the north-west part of the borough. The Council have built
several hundred houses and flats in that district. The Sutton Trust have erected large blocks of
flats which comprise 540 separate tenements, with an approximate population of 2,900, of whom
870 are under 5 years of age.
The Committee of the Raymede infant welfare centre, which served the area in which the new
buildings have been erected, found that many of the women living in these homes complained of
the distance they had to travel to the Raymede Centre in Ladbroke Grove, and that there were others
for whom the distance was too great to permit them to attend at all. The voluntary committee
therefore approached the Borough Council and the Sutton Trustees with regard to the establishment
of a branch infant welfare centre in the neighbourhood of the new buildings. Both bodies were
sympathetic, and the Sutton Trustees at once expressed their willingness to provide a suitable
building for an infant welfare centre, if the cost of its maintenance were borne by the Raymede
Centre Committee and the Borough Council. The building has been completed, and was opened by
the Mayoress (Mrs. Gordon Bird) in March, 1931.