View report page

64
Maternal
mortality.
The arrangement made at the suggestion of the Ministry of Health whereby
confidential reports are made on maternal deaths by medical officers of the Council
and are exchanged with the metropolitan borough medical officers of health as
described in the annual report for 1929, was continued during the year.
Payment of
medical fees.
The Midwives Act, 1918, imposed upon the Council the duty of paying
fees to medical practitioners called in by midwives in cases of emergency. The
patient is required to reimburse the Council according to her means. The Minister
of Health has laid down a scale of fees to which local authorities must adhere.
In June, 1935, the Ministry of Health (circular 1488) directed that paragraph
no. 8 of the scale of fees (circular 358) indicating the circumstances under which
fees are not payable by the local supervising authority, must be regarded as
having been deleted.
Claims accepted during the year numbered 2,905, compared with 3,119 in
1934, the total amount involved being £3,487, compared with £3,625 in
1934. The Midwives Act, 1926, fixed a limit of time, namely, two months from
the date of the first visit, within which a medical practitioner must submit his
claim. In pursuance of this provision, 34 claims amounting to £44 13s. Od. were
refused during 1935.
Registration
of nursing
homes.
The Nursing Homes Registration Act, 1927, came into operation on 1st July,
1928, and repealed Part II of the Midwives and Maternity Homes Act, 1926, and also
so much of any local acts as provided for the registration of maternity homes. The
Annual Report for 1928 (Vol. III, pp. 53-54) indicates fully the powers of the Council
under the Act.
A nursing home is defined as " any premises used or intended to be used for the
reception of, and the providing of nursing for, persons suffering from any sickness,
injury or infirmity and includes a maternity home." The definition of a maternity
home is " any premises used or intended to be used for the reception of pregnant
women or of women immediately after childbirth." Consequently such premises
require registration as a maternity home even though the women go to some other
place for the actual confinement.
The number of nursing homes on the register on 1st January, 1935, was 211.
During the year 1935, 19 homes were added, of which 8 had applied during 1934,
and 1 in 1933, while 23 were removed on cancellation of the registration, leaving 207
on the register on 31st December, 1935. With one exception cancellations were
made at the request of the persons registered and/or upon change of ownership.
During the year proceedings were instituted against two persons for conducting
premises as nursing homes without being duly registered in respect thereof. Both
summonses were dismissed. In one case costs (£2 2s.) were awarded to the Council,
and, in the other, costs amounting to £3 3s. to the defendant.
In respect of one nursing home the registration of the keeper was cancelled by
order of the Council on the grounds that (i) the keeper was not a fit person to conduct
a nursing home, and (ii) the premises were unsuitable by reason of staffing and
equipment.
There were 33 applications for registration during the year, of which, at the end
of the year, 15 had been withdrawn and 10 granted, 8 being still under consideration.
The general considerations taken into account by the Council in administering
the Act are fully described in the Annual Report for 1930 (Vol. III, Part I, pp. 53-54).
In 1935 the Council granted 111 exemptions from the provisions of the Nursing
Homes Registration Act, 1927, in respect of premises not conducted for profit. These
exemptions are for a period due to expire on 30th June, 1936 ; the exemption may
be renewed at the discretion of the Council from year to year.
The homes have on the whole been satisfactorily conducted. Improvement
in the cleanliness, general orderliness and in the staffing of homes has continued.
Some of the older homes have closed or have changed ownership. Upon
change of ownership the new owners were required to fulfil the requirements for a
" new " home.