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1. A total of 5,570 expectant mothers attended ante-natal clinics and the final
adjusted number of births, institutional and domiciliary, recorded in the Division was
8,265. Comparable figures for 1956 were 5,409 and 8,433 respectively.
2. 18,189 children under five were brought to clinics, of whom 7,281 were under
one year at the time of their first attendance : these numbers represent a slight decrease
as compared with the previous year when, of 18,415 children attending, 7,548 were
under one year old.
3. Altogether 80,829 visits were made to a total of 24,574 children under five.
7,383 visits were made to expectant mothers during the year, as against 7,602 in 1956.
The number of families visited amounted to 24,156 (27,510 in 1956), and a total of 12,929
visits were made to other cases (11,114 in 1956). 1,739 visits were made to tuberculous
households during 1957, an increase of 39 over the number of visits made in the previous
year.
Home help
4. The number of families needing home help fell by 43, service was provided in
4,416 cases : the decrease was felt in the maternity, tuberculosis and other cases ; on
the other hand the number of chronic sick, aged and infirm families needing help, went
up from 3,392 to 3,550 (i.e., from 76 per cent. to 80 per cent. of the total). Two patients
were given help at night for three nights in all.
Day
nurseries
5. One nursery (50 places) was closed as against four nurseries (186 places) which
were closed in the previous year : the children so displaced were almost all absorbed
into one or other of the remaining 18 Council, and one voluntary-aided, day nurseries.
The number of children on the books at the end of the year showed a reduction as
compared with 1956 : 433 were registered in the under 2 age-group (483 in 1956), and
693 in the 2-5 group (805 in 1956). It is interesting to note that only approximately
73 per cent. of the applicants for day nursery places accept after assessment.
6. The number of private day nurseries registered under the Nurseries and ChildMinders
Regulation Act, 1948, totalled 21 (representing 507 places) at the end of 1957,
an increase of two (18 places) over the previous year's figure. An accession of six
(representing 18 places) to the number of child-minders statutorily registered under
the same Act, brought their total registered at the end of the year to 19 (120 places).
Immunisation
7. A further increase is recorded in the number of children immunised against
diphtheria. As against 5,355 primary courses completed in 1956, the corresponding
figure for 1957 is 5,598, of which 56 per cent. were given to children born in 1956 and
18 per cent. to those born in 1957 ; of this year's figure 71 per cent. were given in the
form of the combined diphtheria and whooping cough immunisation. This increase
was not, however, maintained in the number of reinforcing injections given—5,707
compared with 7,400 in 1956 : the bulk of this year's total was made up from children
of the 4-11 age-group, and 93 per cent. of the overall number received a reinforcing
dose against diphtheria only.
8. This increase in immunisation was reflected in the number of children under
fifteen vaccinated for smallpox—5,388 (4,645 in 1956) of which 81 per cent. were under
one year at the time of vaccination. 249 children under fifteen were re-vaccinated,
which again is more than the number recorded for 1956 (117), and of those 76 per cent.
were between the ages of 5 and 14 inclusive.
9. From the poliomyelitis inoculation scheme which started the previous year,
the registrations of 12,519 children were carried forward into 1957 and these with
some of the additional 7,062 registered in the latter year, provided most of the 10,950
children aged 1-10 who were inoculated in 1957 (1,799 in 1956). At the beginning of
the year general practitioners were asked to take part in the scheme, and their contribution
for the year past amounted to 1,416 children for whom completed records were
received.
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