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Whitelands College.
Bedford College.
St. Bartholomew's Medical School.
London School of Economics.
National Association of Mental Health.
Convent of the Holy Child Jesus.
N.S.P.C.C.
London University.
Stepney Jewish Girl's Club and Settlement.
Charing Cross Hospital.
North Western Polytechnic.
West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases.
St. Margaret's House, Bethnal Green.
Royal College of Nursing.
National Children's Home.
The revised syllabus of the General Nursing Council for the training of student
nurses became operative on the 1st January, 1954, and during the first year following
the revision, about 3,000 student hospital nurses were given facilities for visits of
observation in the field to acquire a knowledge of personal and communal health
and of the social and preventive aspects of disease.
Post-graduate medical students studying for the Diploma in Child Health and the
Certificate in Public Health were given facilities, as in previous years, under the supervision
of the medical staff for visiting many different types of services administered by the
Public Health and other departments of the Council. During the year 1,143 visits were
arranged for 72 students studying for the Diploma in Child Health and about 150 visits
were arranged for some 30 doctors studying for the Certificate in Public Health.
Interviews with senior staff of the department were arranged for students studying
for the Diploma in Public Health.
REPORTS BY THE DIVISIONAL MEDICAL OFFICERS
Division 1, comprising the boroughs of Chelsea, Fulham, Hammersmith and Kensington.
Dr. Violet Russell reports :
The birth rate continued to fall, the total births being 11 per cent, less than last year.
The major part of this decrease was reflected in a lower number of hospital confinements ;
domiciliary confinements were only 2.5 per cent, lower than in the preceding year.
Vital
statistics
Consequent upon the lower birth-rate there was a decrease in the number of antenatal
and infant welfare attendances at welfare centres and slightly fewer visits were made
by health visitors. Nevertheless the popularity of the welfare centres continued to grow
and it was encouraging to note that mothers were calling at centres more often on their
own initiative to discuss their problems with the medical officers and health visitors.
Welfare of
mothers and
children
Among the activities carried on at the welfare centres health education made noteworthy
progress and attendances at the special sessions arranged increased from 2,362
Health
education
in 1953 to 3,146 in 1954. At these sessions and elsewhere lectures, demonstrations and
film shows were given and these were supplemented by various forms of display equipment
and publicity. Early in the year a health exhibition was staged at the Hammersmith
Town Hall, when representative examples of the wide range of services available were
shown by photographs, models, graphs and other devices. All major aspects of health
work undertaken by the Council, the Borough Councils and the voluntary agencies
co-operating with them were represented in an attractive series of exhibits which included
some shown by other public services. The exhibition was mentioned in a broadcast by
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