London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1936
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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| Description | Registration of the blind | Training of the blind | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. | F. | M. | F. | ||
| (1) Applicants who were examined and were certified as blind | 454 | 761 | 35 | 19 | 1,269 |
| (2) Acceptance of certificates issued by hospital and private doctors | 33 | 35 | - | - | 68 |
| (3) Acceptance of certificates issued by hospital and private doctors stating applicants were not certifiable as blind | 3 | 2 | – | – | 5 |
| (4) Applicants who were examined and not certified as blind | 191 | 244 | 12 | 9 | 456 |
| (5) Found blind but unfit for training | - | - | 1* | 3* | 4* |
| (6) Previously certified as blind and found fit for training | - | - | 19 | 10 | 29 |
| (7) Previously certified as blind and found unfit for training | - | - | 7 | 2 | 9 |
| Total | 681 | 1,042 | 74 | 43 | 1,840 |
| Total for 1935 | 543 | 676 | 85 | 51 | 1,355 |
* Included in (1) above.
Midwives Acts, 1902 to 1936, Nursing Homes Registration and Maternity and Child
Welfare Contribution Schemes.
Midwives
The Midwives Acts, 1902-1926, and the Rules of the Central Midwives Board
regulating the practice of midwives provide for:—
(a) Prevention of the practice of midwifery by unauthorised persons.
(b) Training of midwives. (The Council's scheme of training includes,
apart from the full training provided in certain of the hospitals,
(i) lectures to pupil midwives of London on the Rules of the Board,
etc., and on venereal diseases to certain of them;
(ii) post-certificate lectures to certified midwives;
(iii) grants for special instruction of midwives and midwife-teachers.)
(c) Supervision of the practice of midwives.
(d) Suspension of midwives from practice on grounds of the possibility
of spreading infection, and compensation for loss of practice resulting from
such suspension.
(e) Payment of fees to doctors called by midwives to attend patients in
cases of abnormality or emergency.
(f) Payment of proportion of the annual deficit incurred by Central Midwives
Board.
New
legislation,
1936.
The Midwives Act, 1936, which amends the Midwives Acts, 1902 to 1926,
became operative on 31st July, 1936.
The Act requires every local supervising authority to secure, either by making
arrangements with welfare councils or voluntary organisations for the employment
by those councils or organisations of certified midwives as whole-time servants,
or by itself employing such midwives, that the number of certified midwives so
employed who are available in its area for attendance on women in their own homes
as midwives or as maternity nurses during childbirth and from time to time thereafter
during a period not less than the lying-in period, is adequate for the needs of the
area.