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19
Staff.—The organisation of the Maternity and. Child Welfare
Work in the Borough is under the control of the Medical Officer
of Hoalth. He is assisted by a part-time lady doctor, Dr. Flora
Shepherd, who conducts infant consultations at Brook Boad
Centre on two days in the week and at Wightman Boad Centre
on one day in the week. An ante-natal clinic is also held at both
the centres by Dr. Jessie Muir, who is paid for her services
partly by the Town Council and partly by funds collected for
this purpose from the mothers who attend the ante-natal clinics.
The responsibility of the Town Council for some of the
ante-natal work began during the past year, and marks a welcome
advance.
In addition to the medical staff, there are three Health
Visitors, whose duties are to visit and advise mothers and to help
in the work at the centres. A midwife is engaged by the Town
Council, and her work is much appreciated by the mothers.
According to the standards laid down by the Ministry of
Health, we have sufficient Health Visitors in Hornsey. Those,
however, who know the work that remains to be don© appreciate
that we are sadly under-staffed. To assist in the growing work
at the Centres, quite apart from home-visiting, another nurse
is needed; and another could be employed in the management
of difficult cases of breast-feeding and in superintending testfeeds.
Yet another is required, in times when measles is
prevalent, for the nursing of sick children in their homes. In
spite of this we are fully staffed according to the standard of the
Ministry of Health,
It must be admitted also that the medical staff and the
number of sessions held will before long have to be increased,
if we are to be able to satisfy the demands made by the public.
It is a penalty of success that we are "snowed under" with work.
Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Muir can see at each session only a limited
number of mothers and children; and the numbers that desire
to consult these doctors are greater than the doctors can see.
In order to keep abreast with the work Dr. Shepherd herself
provided, at her own expense, some additional medical help at
the Centres during the Autumn and Winter of 1923. This kindly
action diminished the waiting list; it shortened the queue; but
it must be considered as only a temporary expedient. Those