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138
arrived in my opinion when our welfare centres should be planned
more systematically according to the needs of the mothers and
children ; in other words, decentralised so that eventually there
shall be at least one in each ward. Such a policy would most
appropriately be linked up with the improvement of the housing
of the borough.
I think this policy should be carried out in stages. The
most urgently needed of these centres is in the North Ward,
whence mothers have to travel a considerable distance to either
of the existing centres. This is also true of parts of the East
Ward beyond the Canal, and the South Ward, both of which
should be dealt with in due course.
In the medical staffing of the ante-natal clinics at the proposed
new centres, attention should be paid to the advice contained
in the Interim and Final Reports of the Departmental
Committee on Maternal Mortality that it is desirable that the
Medical Officers shall have special and recent experience in
obstetrics.
3 The Council has for many years had the great privilege of
the service on its part-time medical staff of Dr. Helen M. M.
Mackay, a consultant of international repute on child nutrition,
who conducts a weekly session (Special Clinic for Delicate Children)
at the Cornwall Road Centre. To this Clinic, children presenting
special difficulties of diagnosis or requiring considerable periods
of observation and treatment should be referred by the Medical
Officers of the ordinary Infants' Consultations. During
the past few years, the statistics of attendance at this Clinic
appear to indicate that it is not used as fully as it might be,
and I have recently found it necessary to issue instructions with
a view to a more adequate use of Dr. Mackay's valuable services.
4 The Light and Inhalation treatments at the Cornwall Road
Welfare Centre appear to be working satisfactorily. Any question
of the extension of this work depends somewhat upon the possible
provision of additional centres (and the attendance and accommodation
thereat) in other parts of the borough.
5 The work of the Dental Clinic I regard as probably the most
important auxiliary to the maternity and infants' consultations.
Much useful service has been rendered since the Clinic was opened
in 1925, but I am satisfied that there is a large area of dental need
among expectant and nursing mothers and toddlers with which
we have not yet been able to deal. The normal work of the Clinic
has hitherto been attention to mothers and children referred
to the Dental Surgeon by the doctors at the Centres, but since
1930 we have also been inviting mothers to bring their children
of 3 and 4 to have their teeth inspected and treated if found
necessary.
The number of mothers seen is slightly under 100 per year
and about seventeen of them are provided with artificial dentures.