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16
The Town Hall infant visitors include two full-time health visitors and two who are
health visitors as to half their time, as well as one other health visitor who devotes her time
primarily to the visiting of cases of measles. These ladies made during the year 3290 visits
to 1607 infants (apart from 4930 visits to cases of measles and visits for certain other special
purposes). They also made 338 visits to 160 expectant mothers, from lists of expectants
supplied by University College and Middlesex Hospitals. The work of these visitors is
detailed in Table 9 on page 96.
The Council's visitors at the Infant Welfare Centres included at the end of the year 19
full-time workers and one part-time worker, who divide their time between the necessary work
in the centres, and home visiting. In addition there was one voluntary (trained) worker at
the Argyle Square group of centres, and two visitors (part-time so far as St. Pancras is concerned)
working from the centre at University College Hospital whose salaries are paid by the hospital
and not by the Council. In 1920 these centre visitors made 41,208 visits to 6,895 children
and 4667 visits to 1998 expectant mothers.
The visits made by the health visiting staff at the Town Hall and the centres therefore
numbered in all 44,498 visits to 8,502 children, and 5,005 visits to 2,158 expectant mothers.
The figur es for individual cases visited are, however, overstated, owing to a number of
instances in which the same case will have been counted at more than one centre,
particularly where cases have been passed on to other centres by University College Hospital
and by the Town Hall visitors. The figures are detailed on page 17. In the previous "year
(1919) the total visits were 28,122 to children and 4,392 to expectant mothers, and in 1918
19,937 and 2,011.
Maternity and Child Welfare Centres.
The nature of the work carried out at the Centres has been described in detail in
previous Annual Reports. Each centre (or group of centres) is managed by a voluntary
committee, who find the funds for the maintenance of the centre other than those referred to
on page 15 as provided by the Council. The Council has two representatives on each
committee, and the Medical Officer of Health and members of his staff are also on nearly all
of them. Each committee also sends a representative to the Council's Maternity and Child
Welfare Sub-Committee. The University College Hospital Centre is not, however, subsidized
by the Council.
During the year two centres (North St. Pancras and Camden Town) have been provided
with full-time premises, so that there are now four centres with houses of their own.
In the table on the next page the work of the centres in 1920 is staistically7 detailed.
It will be seen that at the end of the year 31 infant consultations were held per week, and 35 ante-natal consultations per month. During 1920 the children who have attended the
consultations for the first time have numbered 4375 under one year and 237 older than
one year. The children under one amount to 73 per cent. of the births registered for the
year. The number is probably somewhat overstated owing to a limited number moving
from one centre to another. The children made a total of 47,625 attendances (compared with
from one centre to another. The children made a total of 47,625 attendances (compared with
26,252 in 1919). 1,254 expectant mothers also attended, making in all 3,577 attendances
(compared with 3,343 in 1919).