London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Finsbury 1938
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Finsbury Borough]
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maternity cases, confinements and their complications, and for the
nursing of the illnesses of children and infants.
The full service applies also to the home nursing of cases of
measles whooping cough, diarrhoea, pneumonia, influenza and
tuberculosis. The cases are referred to the Metropolitan Nursing
Association, 31, Bedford Place, Bloomsbury Square, W.C.1 (Telephone
No. Museum 0352), from the Public Health Department,
and are invariably attended to without delay. This work has
always been extremely well done.
The cases nursed by the Metropolitan District Nursing Association in 1938 for the Public Health and the Maternity and Child Welfare Committees were as follows:—
| Condition. | Maternity. | Public Health. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cases. | Visits. | Cases. | Visits. | |
| Tuberculosis | — | — | 28 | 948 |
| Pneumonia | — | — | 9 | 148 |
| Maternity conditions | 30 | 378 | — | — |
| Measles and German measles | 259 | 533 | 122 | 247 |
| Chicken pox | 1 | 7 | 5 | 32 |
| Ophthalmia neonatorum | 2 | 10 | 1 | 7 |
| Miscellaneous | 4 | 59 | — | — |
| 296 | 987 | 165 | 1,382 | |
| Total cases | 461 | |||
| Total visits | 2,369 | |||
Hospital Treatment.
Infants' Hospital, Vincent Square, Westminster.
The Borough Council retains three cots for use when required
at the Infants' Hospital, Vincent Square. Ailing babies and children
up to the age of five years are admitted at the request of the Health
Department. Provision is made for the admission of the mother
with the baby when this course is considered necessary. The
Borough Council pay £25 per cot per annum retaining fee, and
£2 per week per cot when occupied by cases sent to the Hospital
by the Department.