View report page

38
services, very little use was made of them. It cannot but be to
the good that so many more expectant mothers will now be brought
under medical supervision at a period so important in their lives.
The further development of the London County Council's
midwifery scheme—the establishment of the emergency obstetrical
service (popularly known as " the flying squad ")—was in the last
stages of preparation at the end of the year. The Council on the
enquiry of the London County Council had already in September
agreed to pay £5 5s. for each Battersea case attended. The service
is intended for acute obstetrical emergencies when patients cannot
be moved to hospital without undue risk; and a doctor with special
obstetric experience, a midwife, and appropriate equipment
(including facilities for blood transfusion) are to be despatched
immediately on receipt of a request from the medical practitioner
attending the patient.
On 1st November, 1938, an Order made by the Ministry of
Health and entitled the County of London (Midwifery—Prohibition
of Unqualified Persons) Order, 1938, came into operation. Its
scope is as indicated by its title, and it may be regarded as the
last nail in the coffin of that picturesque but otherwise undesirable
character whom Dickens immortalised as Sairey Gamp.
Training of Midwives.
The new Rules proposed by the Central Midwives' Board
which were briefly referred to in the last annual report came into
force during 1938. A longer period of training—from six to twelve
months in the case of trained nurses and from one to two years for
others—became compulsory. The Council, whose maternity hospital
had for 16 years been a recognised training school, were affected by
the new Rules, and in 1937 they applied for their hospital (which
could not under the rules be recognised as a first period training
institution) to be approved for the second (or practical) period of
training. Before this approval was received however, discussions
were taking place with the authorities of the University College
Hospital, Gower Street, W.C., with a view to co-operation for the
purpose of first period training. These discussions resulted in the
formulation of a scheme which received the approval of the Council
in May and the sanction of the Central Midwives' Board later. The
previous application in respect of the second period was therefore
abandoned.
Difficulty was however experienced in obtaining pupils, and
the Council decided to abolish the training fee (£20 for a six-months
pupil) formerly charged.
To complete the Council's scheme, an arrangement was come to
with the Gloucester District Nursing Society to receive for second
period training, pupils who had been trained in the University
College or the Council's hospital, but owing to the permanent
closure of the Borough Maternity Hospital the scheme never
materialised.