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(ii) Two weekly ante-natal and post-natal exercise classes, under a physiotherapist,
commenced at the Amersham Road Centre, Deptford, in November, a
facility which it is hoped to extend throughout the Division as opportunity arises.
(iii) The arrangement with the Seamen's Hospital for the conduct of two
immunisation sessions weekly was discontinued in October and replaced by facilities
at the Council's Chevening Road Centre.
(iv) Arrangements were made for improved spreadover of the Divisional
chiropody service by the re-arrangement of sessions at Chevening Road Centre and
by the transfer of sessions from Charlton Lane Centre to the nearby Fairfield House
Centre, thereby ensuring the availability of treatment in those areas throughout the
week.
(v) In association with the Voluntary Committee, the Deptford School Treatment
Centre was reopened in the rebuilt and excellently equipped centre at Reginald
Square, and arrangements were made for the facilities to be extended.
(vi) A weekly nutrition session was commenced at Westhorne Avenue (Eltham)
School Treatment Centre.
The paramount development was, however, that of the home help service. The
number of persons attended increased from 300 on 5th July, 1948, to 600 on
1st January, and to 875 on 31st December, 1949. The wages bill amounted to
£48,000 for the year 1949 and in the latter part thereof was running at £1,000 a week.
Charges for the service produced an income of £7,300, or fifteen per cent, of the wages
bill. At the end of the year 390 home helps were employed part-time, the equivalent
of 150 whole-time units. In many instances more than domestic help and home
nursing were called for ; and there is no doubt that the inability of hospitals to cope
fully with the chronic sick was a material factor in the mounting demand for the home
help service. What this service has meant not only in the care and prevention of
physical illness, but in lifting anxieties and mitigating distress is shown by the
following expression of appreciation by the manager of a housing estate within the
Division:—
"Your staff have not only completed their work most efficiently but have
shewn those little off-duty kindnesses, by calling on the occupants who may
have been sick, with little gifts of flowers, which have delighted the recipients
beyond words. Thank you again for your most humane efforts to assist the
aged."
Division 7, comprising the boroughs of Camberwell and Lewisham.
Dr. H. D. Chalke reports:—
Premises
Every effort was made to find improved accommodation for certain of the
welfare centres in the Division. New centres were acquired at Consort Road and
on the Flower House Estate. Church buildings at Townley Road, Dulwich, and
Trewsbury Road, Sydenham, were also brought into use. Extension of the Louise
House Centre, Forest Hill, has resulted in a big improvement in the maternity and
child welfare facilities in this neighbourhood. Minor adaptations, alterations and
repairs were carried out and additional equipment provided at many of the centres.
A number of the premises in use—particularly church halls—are ill adapted for clinic
work; it is gratifying to record, however, the splendid way in which the Council's
and the voluntary staffs of these Centres coped with difficult working conditions.
A new school treatment centre was opened at Gordon Road, whilst another was
transferred from the Children's Hospital, Sydenham, to Adamsrill Road School.
Sessions
Ante-natal sessions additional to those attended by doctors and health visitors
were arranged so that midwives of the Council, of the Camberwell District Nursing
Association and of the Salvation Army (Downham) could see their patients at the