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the infirmaties of old age. The cost is borne in full by the
Exchequer but the beneficiaries are expected to refund in whole or
in part the wages of the domestic worker. The domestic workers of
whom there are at present five are part time employees of the Council.
In all cases up to the present the beneficiaries have been able to
contribute the full cost of the workers wages. The amount of
domestic help given varies from 2 hours to 10 hours per week the
average being four.
During the war the facilities provided by the Government
for maternity beds in country hostels and hospitals met a very urgent
need. Now that the war is over these special arrangements cannot he
continued indefinitely. Interim arrangements are however taking shape
to maintain these facilities for a period. Not only is there a
pronounced wish on the part of a woman having her first baby to have
the confinement in hospital - war conditions have made this almost an
accepted custom - but many returning mothers are living with relations
or in furnished rooms where conditions are not suitable for a
confinement. Such governing factors may well prevail until the housing
situation becomes easier.
There is no question that the health of young children has
been well maintained during the war. Whatever the cares and anxieties
besetting adults, the children attending the Welfare Centres or Day
Nurseries present a most heartening sight in health and vigour.
During the year suggestions from the Ministry for the better
care of illegitimate children including measures for guaranteed payment
to the Foster mothers ware considered in conjunction with the
Metropolitan Boroughs Standing Joint Committee. These measures are
referred to in this report. The problem of prematurity, the highest
contributory factor in infantile mortality has also received, attention.
There were fewer newly notified cases of tuberculosis and
fewer deaths. It is to be hoped that the slightly higher incidence of
tuberculosis noted in the earlier war years and no doubt attributable
to war conditions is now on the wane; a good deal will depend on the
amount and variety of foodstuffs likely to be available to the general
population in the immediate post war period. There is no doubt the
scheme of money allowances to sufferers before and after institutional
treatment is of material assistance in restoring working capacity.
Apparatus for conducting mass miniature radiography is in short supply.
The London County Council which operates this scheme for the early
diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in the general population was good
enough, at the request of the City Council, to make special arrangements
for people employed in the City. Thanks to the good will of the
Governors of the Soho Hospital for Women, the apparatus was set up in
the Out-patients Department of the Hospital during six weeks of the
summer of 1945. When the X-Ray Unit was operating there, some 7,770
individuals were x-rayed.
In concluding this report I would again express my thanks to
the Members of the Council with whom I have been more immediately
concerned both in measures for the public health and civil defence.
To the members of the staff of the Public Health Department I again pay
tribute for their constancy and steadfastness in conditions of war as
well as for their invariable and ready assistance in all matters
affecting the health and welfare of the citizens of Westmeinster.
I have the honour to be,
Your obedient Servant,
ANDREW J. SEINNIE.
Medical Officer of Health.
September, 1945.