View report page

45
Transfer of Premises under the National Health Service Act, 1946
The transfer of hospitals from the Council to the Minister of Health and of
maternity and child welfare premises from the metropolitan borough councils to
the Council raised a number of complex problems concerning the future ownership
and allocation of buildings which had not previously been used entirely for functions
assumed under the Act by one authority. Certain portions of hospitals, for example,
remained with the Council while some borough council buildings had previously
provided accommodation for (1) maternity and child welfare services which passed to
the Council, (2) clinic services which became the responsibility of the hospital
authorities and (3) some of the borough council's own services. Since problems
concerning hospitals involved the four metropolitan regional hospital boards, the
Ministry decided, in order to maintain a common policy and to expedite the matter,
that negotiations should be conducted between officers of the Ministry and the Council
with a view to finding a solution which the Council and the Minister could be
recommended to approve. Conferences were held during the year with a view to a
scheme of exchanges of property being devised which would meet the needs as far
as possible of the parties concerned. It was considered that joint ownership should
be avoided wherever possible since it presented so many administrative difficulties
and that a building should eventually pass entirely into the ownership of the Minister
or the Council. At the end of the year these negotiations were nearing completion.
Negotiations were also conducted with the metropolitan borough councils
concerned with a view to formulating agreements in respect of buildings used by
both the Council and the borough councils.
CARE OF MOTHERS AND YOUNG CHILDREN
Administration
During 1950 the task of maintaining, reorganising and improving the personal
health service was continued. After a further year's experience this new service has
solved many of the difficulties that confronted it at the beginning but, none the less,
new problems continually call for attention. The day-to-day administration of the
services has been continued by the nine divisional health committees. Elected and
co-opted members of these committees have regularly visited health establishments
in their areas. The divisional medical officer is responsible, through his administrative
staff, for the co-ordination of the personal services in his area.
Expansion of services
The following table shows the number of attendances at infant welfare and antenatal
and post-natal centres which were held during 1947, 1949 and 1950. The
figures for 1947 are taken from the annual reports of the metropolitan boroughs who
up to July, 1948, were responsible for the administration of the maternity and child
welfare service in the county, and to ensure comparability it has been necessary to
exclude foot and light treatment sessions.
The decline since 1947 in the number of attendances at clinics is partly due to the
decline in the birth rate, which in 1947 reached its highest level for many years. This
may have been accentuated in the ante-natal clinics by an inclination on the part
of expectant mothers to seek ante-natal care from general practitioners or to book
for confinement, including ante-natal care, in hospital. In the infant welfare centres,
a factor in decreasing attendance may have been a tendency to take children to the
family doctor for minor ailments rather than to the centre. The reductions in some
areas have been greater than in others.