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consent to vaccination has been withheld, but it is hoped that as the benefits of these
preventive measures become more widely appreciated, more and more parents will
take advantage of the arrangements.
Scientific
branch
A summary of the work of the former Chemical Branch (which has now been
re-designated as the Scientific Branch in order to convey more aptly the scope and
nature of its work) will be found on page 44. A fuller report of the work of this branch
of the Department has been published separately.*
Building
programme
The need tor economy continued to limit the amount of capital building expenditure.
The Minister of Health was unable to sanction the provision of new maternity and
child welfare centres except in those areas, such as new housing estates, where no clinic
services existed at all, and in consequence the five-year capital building programme for
the period 1954-59 approved by the Health Committee during the year included only
those projects having the highest priority and deferred for the time being schemes for
replacement of existing maternity and child welfare centres. A list of works completed
during the year appears on page 52.
Co-operation
with other
parts of the
National
Health Service
Further progress was made towards the closer mtegration of the services provided
by the Council with the general medical service provided by the London Executive
Council and the Hospital and Specialist services details of which will be found on
page 56.
Care of
mothers and
young
children
The attendances of children at the welfare centres reached a record level, 86 per
cent, of children in their first year of life having attended. At the end of the year places
were provided for 5,850 children under five years in 105 day nurseries and 1,590 young
children were being cared for by child-minders under supervised arrangements. The
co-ordination of the various agencies concerned in the problem of protecting children
against neglect and ill-treatment by divisional standing committees continued and the
results accomplished are recorded in the reports of the divisional medical officers (page
125 to 143).
The Central Health Services Council in their report for 1952 drew attention to the
desirability of the maternity and child welfare services giving more attention to mental
health, concentrating especially on the therapeutic and preventive psychiatry of childhood.
It was decided to set up a combined study group drawn from the Public Health
Department and the Tavistock Clinic under the chairmanship of Dr. John Bowlby of
the Clinic to investigate the possibility of increasing mental health work in this field.
Their report is set out in Appendix B, page 156 and steps are being taken to give effect
to the main recommendations.
The first attendances of expectant mothers at ante-natal clinics in 1954 showed an
increase of 2 per cent, compared with the previous year and represented 45 per cent, of
all women needing ante-natal care. Attendances at educational sessions showed a further
encouraging increase of almost one-third as compared with 1953 and were more
than double those of 1950, reflecting the attention now being paid to group education
at the welfare centres.
The transfer of responsibility for the distribution of welfare foods from the Ministry
of Food to the Council was effected smoothly and about 200 distributing points were
utilised in London.
Domiciliary
midwifery
service
The number of confinements attended under the Council s domiciliary midwifery
arrangements, which had been declining since 1948, showed a slight increase during the
year, when 10,546 home confinements were attended out of a total of 51,655 live and
still-births. There was a further increase in the use of gas and air analgesia.
Home
nursing
The home nursing service provided by the 27 voluntary district nursing organisations,
acting as agents for the Council through the Central Council for District Nursing in
London, continued and expanded their valuable work. The number of visits paid in
1954 (1,873,881) was about 70 per cent, in excess of those in 1949, i.e., the first full
year after the inauguration of the National Health Service.
* Annual Report of the Scientific Adviser, 1954. Staples Press Ltd., London.
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