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17
General Committee of Management had no alternative but to
close down the Hostel; more especially having regard to the fact
(as already stated)~that the original Founder of the Hostel withdrew
her support. No other course of action (other than closure) was
possible, and it is, in the opinion of the Medical Officer of Health, to
be regretted that such a course was necessary. The Hostel accordingly
ceased to form part of the Lambeth Maternity and Child Welfare
Scheme, as a voluntary institution under a local representative
committee of management, in connection with which Borough Council
grants are payable, and was withdrawn therefrom by such Council by
resolution on September 25th, 1924.
The Founder of the Hostel has now handed over the premises
and the future administration to the Governors of St. Thomas's
Hospital, so that the Hostel forms part of that Hospital's medical
administration, for which the Governors are responsible (financially and
otherwise),* but no grants are available under the Lambeth Scheme.
Under the Voluntary Committee of Management the expenses
of maintenance proved to be large, in view of the comparatively small
numbers of infants and children treated, and an extension scheme was
under consideration, and had been provisionally approved by the
Ministry of Health, when the difference of opinion between the
Honorary Consulting Staff and the Medical Officer of the Hostel
arose, with the result that the Founder of the Hostel withdrew her
support. It must be left, therefore, to the Governors of St. Thomas's
Hospital to re-open the question of such extension scheme, and to have
it carried out as may seem to such Governors to be desirable.
The value of such an Institution as the Hostel goes without
saying, but it is clear that treatment or feeding thereat must, in no
way, be restricted to one particular method such as the Dr. Truby-King
method, in view of the experience obtained by the Medical Officer in
charge during the past two years, as shewn by the following analysis of
the 39 cases:
Uninterrupted recovery 3
Did well but fat had to be omitted or reduced 6
Broke down on fat once 10
Broke down on fat twice 6
Broke down on fat three times 3
Might have done better under other treatment 6
Died 5
Total 39
* The Hostel was reopened as part of St. Thomas 1 lospital Medical Administration
on Nov. 1st, 1924.
B