View report page

12
in that it gave the unbiased views of private medical men and women with a wide experience
amongst the poor, it left many questions unanswered. With a view to investigating the problem
more deeply and more widely, the doctors in North Kensington formed a new committee in conjunction
with their colleagues in Hammersmith and Paddington for the purpose of making a detailed
medical study of the first twelve months of life of every child born in the year 1932 in the poorer
parts of the three boroughs. As those children born towards the end of 1932 will not have reached
one year of age until the end of 1933, the report on the medical enquiry will not be available until
1934.
Whilst the doctors' findings are awaited with considerable interest, the high Kensington
infantile death rate of 98 for the year 1932 calls for immediate consideration by the council. To
enable this to be done, I have for some weeks been studying the records available in the public
health department so as to be able to submit an appropriate review ; but as my research continued,
the problem became more complicated. Eventually, I came to the decision to omit from my
annual report all but bare statistics and to arrange for one of the council's experienced women health
officers to devote the whole of her time for several weeks to a personal investigation into each of
the 232 infant deaths which went to make that high rate. During the course of the summer, a
special report on this detailed investigation will be published.
MATERNAL MORTALITY.
In 1932, there were nine deaths of Kensington women from diseases or accidents directly
connected with childbirth, and this figure represents a death rate of 3.8 per 1,000 births. The rate
for England and Wales for 1932 was 4.06. Puerperal fever was the cause of four of the Kensington
deaths, whilst accidents associated with pregnancy were responsible for the other five.
Although the maternal death rate of 3.8 shows a decline on the figure for the previous year
and is slightly lower than the average for recent years, it is still too high ; and efforts must be made
to secure that every working.class expectant woman in Kensington shall receive the advantages
of that skilled advice which is available for them at the borough ante.natal clinics, the hospitals
or from private medical practitioners. The problem is one of educating the mothers of North
Kensington in regard to the benefits to be derived by taking advantage of the facilities which have
been provided, and the council's health lecturer is making "The Value of Ante.Natal Care" a
special subject in her course of lectures for 1933.
GENERAL PROVISION OF HEALTH SERVICES IN THE AREA.
STAFF OF THE COUNCIL'S PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
A list of the staff engaged in the public health department at the end of the year 1932 will
be found in Table 7 of Appendix II.
PROFESSIONAL NURSING IN THE HOME.
As in past years, the Kensington District Nursing Association continued to carry out
professional nursing in the homes of the poor. The number of cases nursed during 1932 was
2,340 and the number of visits paid 48.064.