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35
Dulwich Hospital.—Erection of dispensary (including a laboratory and office)
and dispensary stores; conversion of existing dispensary into a sisters'
messroom and a servery. Erection of a messroom and sitting room for
female domestic staff; and the extension of waiting room for visitors.
Hackney Hospital 11.—Remodelling and complete reconditioning and reequipping
of five floors of the female block north to accommodate 218
chronic sick.
Hammersmith Hospital.—Adaptation, reconditioning and re-equipment of
blocks G, H, and I, formerly used by the able-bodied and the infirm, to
provide 189 beds for chronic sick patients, 9 for sick nurses and 53 for
children.
Lambeth Hospital.—Conversion of the former nurses' home (E block) into
accommodation for 58 acute sick and 30 child patients.
Paddington Hospital.—Demolition of a part of E block and the erection of a
ward block containing 59 maternity beds and 26 beds for general cases,
with a dental department on the ground floor.
Princess Mary's Convalescent Home, Margate.—Demolition of four single-storey
children's blocks and the erection of a block for convalescent women,
containing four-bedded dormitories for 192 patients. Adaptation of
block A to provide sick ward accommodation for 31 patients and 13 cots,
patients' dining rooms, cloakrooms and lavatories, X-ray room, treatment
room, minor operating theatre and a dispensary.
St. Mary Abbots Hospital.—(a) Demolition of narrow iron bridges connecting
three ward blocks, and construction of concrete and glass bridges suitable
for open-air treatment of patients and erection of new sanitary annexes
at each end of the bridges, (b) Adaptation of two wards as a thoracic
surgery unit for 44 patients.
St. Mary, Islington, Hospital.—Improvement of male genito-urinary ward,
including the formation of 2 single and 2 double-bedded cubicles and the
construction of a verandah.
St. Matthew's Hospital.—Modernisation of 8 male wards in the front block
to accommodate 270 chronic sick patients.
St. Nicholas' Hospital.—Formation of new main entrance with gate lodge
separate from that to Woolwich institution.
Maternity
The hope expressed in the 1937 report that the inauguration of a domiciliary
midwifery service would lead to a substantial decrease in the pressure on maternity
wards has not been wholly justified, though it is likely that, but for the domiciliary
service, the pressure on hospital beds would have been even greater. The number
of births in the Council's hospitals rose from 19,944 in 1937 to 21,147 in 1938. After
the middle of the year normal multiparæ whose home circumstances were found
to be satisfactory were asked to make their own arrangements if they did not wish
to accept the offer of the services of a domiciliary midwife. As far as possible,
hospital admission was restricted to primiparæ, to abnormal cases among multiparas,
and to those whose domestic circumstances made a home confinement undesirable.
The figures for 1938 are as follows:—
Table 45
Births in general hospitals
Confinements*
Ante-natal clinics
Live
Still
Total
Total No.
Percentage
who had
attended
Council's
clinics
No. of
clinic
sessions
held
weekly
No. of
women
seen
No. of
attendances
made
20,390
757
21,147
20,859
93.2
102
22,755
148,524
* Patients who died or were discharged during 1938. The number is not the same as that shown in
table 47 (a), which is the number of confinements occurring during the year.
The number of maternity beds available was increased from an average throughout
the year 1937 of 906 beds (958 beds on 31st December, 1937) to an average
throughout the year 1938 of 972 beds (1,023 beds on 31st December, 1938). The