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137
Division 5, comprising the boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar, Stepney and the City
of London.
Dr. G. O. Mitchell reports :
Premises
The centre which had been situated for some years at St. George's Town Hall, Cable F
Street, was transferred during September to a new building nearby, (referred to on
page 52), which was built by the Stepney Borough Council to accommodate (a) a centre
for infant welfare, toddlers and ante-natal sessions, and (b) a branch library, which will
be the direct concern of the Borough Council.
This new building provides excellent, if small, accommodation for clinic purposes,
and is a great improvement on the previous arrangements. The new centre was named
the St. George's Maternity and Child Welfare Centre.
A welcome extension to University House day nursery, Bethnal Green, was completed
(see page 52) and became available from April, providing accommodation for
ten infants. In addition, a staff dining-room and a fully-equipped kitchen were included,
so enabling the nursery to be independent of outside sources for the supply of meals for
children and staff.
During the latter part of the year substantial progress was made towards the adaptation
of two ground floor flats in Newmill House on the Devas Street extension of the
Coventry Cross Estate, Bromley-by-Bow, to serve as a maternity and child welfare
centre. This new centre will be a replacement for the clinics which are held, rather
inconveniently, at All Hallows Hall, Devons Road and St. Michael's Hall, Ullin Street,
Poplar.
Sessions
The infant welfare sessions in Poplar were increased by the addition of fortnightly
sessions at the East India Dock Road and Poplar High Street centres, while a doctor's
session was re -instated at the Wellington Way centre; and on the school medical side
a weekly orthoptic session was introduced at the East India Dock Road centre.
Foot clinic
Attendances at the foot clinic increased during the year, and it is already necessary to
consider an increase in the number of sessions. The Divisional Health Committee is fully
alive to the need for increased chiropody services, particularly for the older members of
the community, and would welcome any consent which the Minister of Health might
give to the extension of this service.
Child-minders
The child-minder service continued to expand and proved a useful ancillary to the
day nurseries. At the end of the year there were 108 voluntarily registered minders
(known to, and recommended by, the health visitors) caring for 83 children as compared
with 77 minders caring for 60 children at the beginning of the year.
Dental service
The position regarding the priority dental services continued to improve and the
recruitment of more dentists allowed the establishment of a number of additional
sessions throughout the division. At the end of the year the level of the service was 25 per
cent. higher than it was in July, 1948. An interesting feature of this expansion was the
inauguration of evening dental sessions at the Ida Samuel centre in Underwood Road,
Whitechapel; Wellington Way centre, Bow, and the Bethnal Green centre in Lyte
Street.
Home helps
The demand for the services of the home helps continued to increase, and the
home help organisers were continually wrestling with the problem of supplying service
to urgent and necessitous cases with a staff which was always working to full capacity.
Throughout the year the households attended in this division per thousand of the total
population exceeded the average for London.
District
nurses
The district nurses also had a very busy year, and this division again showed the
highest number of visits per head of population, and the number of visits per nurse was
higher than in any other division.