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22
Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme.
The Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme of the Council
includes municipal and voluntary effort and the activities of both
are fully co-ordinated.
A memorandum from the Wandsworth Division of the British
Medical Association setting out various proposals designed to
secure better co-operation between private medical practitioners
and the Council in the ante-natal and infant welfare services
provided by the Council and also with regard to diphtheria
immunisation was before the Council in May. A deputation from
the Association had already attended before the Health Committee
in support of the proposals. The Council decided to inform the
Division that the services in question had been built up by the
Council as a result of many years experience and on the advice and
with the approval of the Ministry of Health, and that they were of
opinion that no improvement was likely to be effected by the
adoption of the proposals suggested.
Maternity and Child Welfare Districts and Centres.
For administrative purposes, the Borough is divided into
fourteen districts, for each of which a health visitor is responsible.
There were, at the end of the year, nine Maternity and Child
Welfare centres (municipal, 7 ; voluntary, 2). The situation and
times of opening of the centres, municipal and voluntary, and the
work carried out thereat, are set out in the tables on the next
two pages.
At each of the municipal centres a clinic is held twice weekly
with a woman Medical Officer in attendance, as shewn in the table
on page 23.
Each centre is under the supervision of a trained Health Visitor
and voluntary helpers assist in the work. The voluntary centres
are conducted on similar lines to those of the municipal centres.
Grants and Contributions.
Ancillary services included in the scheme are :—
(1) St. Mary's House, Macaulay Road, Clapham Common (vide
page 44).
(2) St. Margaret's Day Nursery and Resident Hostel, Cambridge
Road (vide page 49).
The annual contributions which the Council are to make to the
voluntary bodies, under the Local Government Act, 1929, during
the quinquennium ending March, 1942, are fixed at the following
amounts:—
The Women's League of Service for Motherhood £546
The Chislehurst Mission £28
The St. Margaret's Day Nursery £500
The Council made other contributions in the financial year
1938-39 in connection with their Maternity and Child Welfare
scheme, as under :— [continued on page 25