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54
GENERAL PROVISION OF HEALTH SERVICES IN THE AREA.
1. Public Health Officers of the Authority.—A detailed list of the officers
of the Public Health Department with their duties and qualifications is
set out on pages 2, 3 and 4 at the beginning of the report.
The Local Government Act, 1929, created very great extensions of the
health services of County Councils and County Boroughs by transferring
to them the entire health services, including hospitals, of the Poor Law
Guardians. So far as the Metropolitan Sanitary Authorities are concerned
the additional duties imposed are confined to the administration of the
Vaccination Acts and Orders formerly carried out by the Guardians.
The Act, however, provides for the transfer or delegation by arrangement
with the London County Council of Health Services now carried out by it
to the Metropolitan Borough Councils. The new duties of the County
Council, including as they do those of the late Metropolitan Asylums Board
and all the Poor Law Unions of London, are of a magnitude far beyond
anything conceivable in any other part of the country. It would therefore
seem a prudent and expedient policy for some of the duties of the health
services, particularly those of a local character formerly performed by the
County Council, to be transferred to the local sanitary authority for
executive purposes.
2. Nursing in the Home.—(a) General:—The nursing of the sick in
their homes is carried out by the three following associations:—
(1) The Metropolitan District Nursing Association. Headquarters:
31, Bedford Place, W.C.
(2) The Westminster Nursing Committee. Headquarters: 27,
Bessborough Gardens, S.W.
(3) The Pimlico, Belgravia and Chelsea Nursing Association.
quarters: 10, Sydney Street, Chelsea.
The associations by mutual arrangement operate in three separate
areas of the City—the first in the northern wards, the second in St.
Margaret and St. John Wards and the third in Victoria and Knightsbridge
Wards. Thus there is adequate and efficient home nursing service
throughout the City for all who are in need of it. Application for a district
nurse is made by the medical practitioner in attendance. While it is
free for those in distress, a charge is made according to means.
(b) Infectious Diseases.—So far as the nursing of infectious cases at
home is concerned, this is limited mainly to measles and whooping
cough. The City Council under its Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme
employs the services of the nursing associations for the nursing of children