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13
insulin). These figures show an increase on the comparable figures for 1941. The
amount of annual grant paid by the Council to the Central Council for District
Nursing for distribution to the local associations was reviewed and increased.
Ante-natal
clinics—food
demonstrations
Demonstrations of an educative type designed to instruct in methods of cooking
and food values were instituted in the ante-natal departments of two hospitals.
They serve a useful purpose and are appreciated by the women attending the clinics.
Reinstatement
of bed
accommodation
Works were carried out which enabled three hospitals (St. Luke's, Chelsea,
St. Matthew's and St. George's Home), which had been closed through conditions
arising out of the war, to be re-opened. Repairs were also carried out at a number
of other hospitals which enabled a large number of beds hitherto unusable owing
to enemy action to be brought into use again.
Emergency
Hospital
Scheme
The work of adaptation of certain hospitals in the Emergency Hospital Scheme
of the Ministry of Health was proceeded with. This included work at one hospital
for the establishment of a special unit for the reception and treatment of Czechoslovakian
patients.
Regional
preliminary
training
school for
nurses
Accommodation at the South-Eastern Hospital was adapted as a regional preliminary
training school for nurses which will serve a group of hospitals.
Fuel
economy
Measures to secure fuel economy at hospitals were undertaken, including limitation
of heating of wards, etc., to specified temperatures, and in certain cases
discontinuance of central heating in staff sleeping quarters.
Equipment
During 1942 the policy of meeting demands for hospital equipment, particularly
furniture and textiles, by utilising surplus stocks from closed or partially closed
hospitals was continued. In addition, it was found practicable to salvage and
recondition many articles from bombed hospital buildings. Nearly all hospital
furniture requirements during the vear were met from these sources.
Medical
education
The peace-time arrangements for medical education at the Council's general and
special hospitals were continued with such modifications as were necessitated from
time to time by war-time conditions.
In all, 682 students, of whom 110 were women, attended courses of instruction
in infectious diseases at fever hospitals and one attended a fever hospital for a course
of instruction in hospital administration for the Diploma in Public Health.
In my Interim Report for 1941, reference was made to an innovation at a fever
hospital whereby medical students become resident while receiving instruction
in infectious diseases. The scheme was extended to a second fever hospital in 1942.
Inter-Departmental
Committee
on
Medical
Schools
In October, 1942, the Council submitted evidence to the Inter-Departmental
Committee on Medical Schools appointed, under the chairmanship of Mr. (now
Sir William) Goodenough, by the Minister of Health and the Secretary of State for
Scotland to enquire into the organisation of medical schools, particularly in regard to
facilities for clinical teaching and research, and to make recommendations,
having regard to the Government's comprehensive post-war hospital policy.
In its statement of evidence the Council pointed out that its interest in medical
education flowed from its position as the major health authority for London; from
the fact that it was the largest civilian employer of medical staff in the country;
and from the facilities which its 100 or so hospitals of all types—general, special and
mental—together with its health services afforded for a complete medical education.
The statement included a comprehensive survey of the provision made by the
Council, both in the pre-war period and during the war, for undergraduate and postgraduate
medical instruction, including general clinical teaching and also teaching
in obstetrics, fevers, psychiatry, venereal diseases and other specialised subjects.
Reference was also made to the extensive facilities provided for post-graduate
instruction at the British Post-Graduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital
and at the Maudsley Hospital Medical School, and to the special provision (including,
in some instances, residential accommodation) made during the war to assist the