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27
Health Visitors.
The Health Visiting staff consists of 12 full time Health Visitors,
two of whom are partly employed as women Sanitary Inspectors.
Facilities are granted by the Council to students of recognised
training bodies for practical instruction and training as Health
Visitors and women Sanitary Inspectors. During the year ten
students from the Hygiene Department, Battersea Polytechnic,
received a course of training under the Council's Maternity and
Child Welfare scheme, and, on completion of their training, certificates
as to their work were supplied to the Polytechnic authorities.
The home visiting carried out during 1936 by the Council's
Health Visitors and those of the voluntary organisations included in
the Borough Maternity and Child Welfare scheme is summarised
in the following table :—
Visits.
Council.
Vol.
Total.
Expectant mothers
3,776
238
4,014
Notified births
10,407
615
11,022
Still-births
66
5
71
Children aged 1-5 years
6,083
704
6,787
Infant deaths
122
20
142
Notifiable infectious disease
5,079
279
5,358
Non-notifiable disease
259
9
268
Prevention of diphtheria
124
20
144
Dental cases
102
5
107
V.D. cases
8
—
8
Maternal deaths
11
—
11
Foster mothers and children
1,050
—
1,050
Other
1,510
53
1,563
Totals
28,597
1,948
30,545
Hospital Provision.
In addition to the provision of midwifery services, hospital
and district, the Council have provided facilities for the needs of
children requiring special hospital treatment by arrangement with
the Victoria Hospital for Children, Chelsea, and the St. Thomas's
Babies' Hostel (vide page 46). The Council contribute an annual
sum to these Hospitals in respect of the facilities afforded (vide
page 22). Women and children are referred where necessary
from the ante-natal and child welfare centres to appropriate
institutions, children being usually sent to one of the above
named hospitals.
Arrangements were also in negotiation at the end of the year,
and were completed in 1937, for the treatment of minor ailments
found in children attending the centres at the school clinics of the
London County Council, of which there are three serving Battersea.
The Council also undertake, on behalf of various hospitals, to
visit and report on the home conditions of Battersea women and
children receiving treatment in the obstetric, gynaecological and
other departments of the hospitals.