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54
Institutional Provision for Mothers and Children.
Maternity Beds for Complicated Cases and for those with Unsuitable
Home Conditions.—By agreement with Westminster Hospital the Council
has the right of admission for cases recommended through its welfare
centres to beds in Westminster Hospital up to 100 patients per annum.
There is also an agreement with St. George's Hospital for admission of
individual cases to beds, payment being made therefor by the City Council.
Apart from the City Council's own maternity scheme, beds are available
in the London County Council hospitals, e.g., St. Stephen's, and also in
voluntary hospitals such as Charing Cross, Middlesex, General Lying-in,
etc., but these beds have to provide for cases not only from London but
from the Home Counties as well, and this applies to some extent to
Westminster Hospital. As has been pointed out in the annual reports of
the Medical Officer of Health for the past 10 years a rapidly increasing
number of women prefer to be confined in hospital. In 1919, 98 women
whose home addresses were not in the City were delivered in residential
institutions in Westminster; in 1934 the number had grown to 966.
Only 238 Westminster women were confined in such institutions. The
City Council, being conscious of the increasing demand for beds for
urgent cases, and further to safeguard the interests of Westminster
mothers by ensuring accommodation for them, made additional provisions
in Westminster Hospital in 1929. About that time the Guardians'
hospital was not universally favoured, although accommodation was
always available. During the past two years or so as a London County
Hospital it has become much more acceptable, no doubt because of its own
ante-natal arrangements. It has, however, the disadvantage of distance,
being some four miles from the eastern districts of the City.
There is at present a definite need for more maternity beds in connection
with general hospitals in the City.
The hospital beds available are as follows:—Charing Cross, 15; St.
George's, 11; Westminster, 12; *St. Stephen's, 28. 966 women from
other districts were confined in Westminster and 458 women belonging
to the City were delivered in the hospitals mentioned.
The number of children born to Westminster parents in institutions
outside the City numbered 526.
* Situated in Chelsea.