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27
A contribution of £100 was made by the Council towards the
cost of this work, which is included in the estimates of the Maternity
and Child Welfare Scheme.
Ante-Natal Work.
The development of Ante-Natal work has been one of the
features of the Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme of the Council
in recent years. The establishment of the Borough Maternity
Hospital has greatly facilitated the development of this side
of the scheme. It is generally recognised now that unless antenatal
work is carried on directly in connection with a Maternity
Hospital, where beds are available for patients attending these
Clinics, the results obtained are unsatisfactory. Furthermore, it is
essential that the Medical Officer in charge should be a specialist in
this branch of medicine. From the beginning, therefore, these
factors have been kept in view, and the system in operation now
in Battersea for the provision of an efficient Ante-Natal and Midwifery
Service may be regarded justifiably as a fairly comprehensive
one.
Owing to the great extension of the Ante-Natal work and the
unsuitability of the existing accommodation the Council decided
to build an extension to the Borough Maternity Hospital to provide
additional accommodation for an Outpatients' Department.
Provisional plans were prepared and submitted to the Ministry
of Health, and it is hoped that the new building will shortly be
erected, as at present the accommodation is severely strained and
otherwise unsuitable for the purpose.*
The Ante-Natal Clinics are under the supervision and direction
of Miss Alice Bloomfield, F.R.C.S., who attends the Clinics on four
sessions weekly, three of these being at the Borough Maternity
Hospital Out-Patients' Department, and one at the new Central
Maternity and Child Welfare Centre at Southlands, and who
reports as follows as to the work carried out during 1928:—
Tuesday Afternoon, Special Clinic.—This has been well
attended, the average number of patients at each session being
about 16 as against 13 in 1927, 825 new and 110 old patients—935
in all—attended, whereas in 1927 712 new and 77 old—789—was
the total.
Blood tests were taken in 825 cases, of which 14 or 1.7 per cent.
gave a positive result.
A number of smears of cervical and urethral discharges
were made and examined, and a large number of patients complaining
of excessive or abnormal vaginal discharge were seen, and, if
necessary, treatment carried out.
With the institution of a post natal clinic under the charge of
the R.M.O., the number of post natal cases seen at the special
clinic has naturally diminished, only those cases attending which
were referred as requiring a special opinion.
*The Ministry in 1929 Sanctioned this extension