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DIVISION 2, comprising the boroughs of Hampstead, Paddington, St.
Marylebone, St. Pancras and City of Westminster.
Dr. H. L. Oldershaw reports:
Welfare
centres and
health visiting
At the end of 1958 the maternity and child welfare centre at 230 Haverstock. Hill,
N.W.3, was closed, and a replacement centre opened in adapted premises at Parkhill
Road, N.W.3, leaving unaltered the total of 25 Council centres and one voluntary
grant-aided centre. The combined results of all the centres' work and other divisional
activities during the year may be summarised as follows:
Out of a total of some 8,500 expectant mothers 6,266 attended ante-natal clinics.
Comparable attendances in 1957 were 5,570.
Of 17,982 children under five brought to the clinics, 7,755 were under one year at
the time of their first attendance : the numbers for the previous year were 18,189 and
7,281.
Altogether 89,031 visits were made to a total of 24,464 children under five by the
health visitors. Visits were made to 8,257 expectant mothers during the year, as against
7,383 in 1957. The number of families visited amounted to 21,611 (24,156 in 1957),
and a total of 12,911 visits were made to other cases (12,929 in 1957). 2,128 visits were
made to tuberculous households during 1958, in addition to the visits made by
tiibprrnlosk visifnrs
Home help
The number of families needing home help rose by 389, service was provided in
4,867 instances: the number of chronic sick, aged and infirm cases needing help rose
from 3,550 to 4,066 which was 80 per cent. of the total as in the previous year.
Day nurseries
and
child-minders
The overall number of approved places provided at the 18 maintained and one grantaided
day nurseries was reduced by 111 to 995 in order to relate them more closely to
the actual attendances. The number of children on the registers at the end of the year
included 90 children resident in adjacent divisions:
31.12.58 31.12.57
Places 0-2 431 433
Places 2-5 691 693
Total 1,122 1,126
Greater flexibility as between age groups resulted in a more economical use of the
places provided and in assessing the priority of applications particular care is taken in
regard to children whose health might suffer through adverse environmental conditions.
The number of private day nurseries registered under the Nurseries and ChildMinders
Regulation Act, 1948, totalled 21 (representing 543 places) at the end of 1958,
an increase of 26 places over the previous year's figure. There has been no change in
the number of child-minders statutorily registered, the total at the end of the year
being 19 (119 places).
Prophylaxis
A small decrease is recorded in the number of children immunised against diphtheria.
As against 5,598 primary courses completed in 1957, the figure for 1958 was 5,260, of
which 53 per cent. were given to children born in 1957 and 23 per cent. to those born in
1958; of this year's figure 67 per cent. were given in the form of the combined
diphtheria and whooping cough immunisation. An increase was, however, shown in
the number of reinforcing injections given—6,144 compared with 5,707 in 1957: the
bulk of this year's total was made up from children of the 4-11 age-group, and 94 per
cent. of the overall number received a reinforcing dose against diphtheria only.
There was a decrease in the number of primary vaccinations for smallpox—5,290
(5,388 in 1957) of which 87 per cent. were under one year at the time of vaccination.
65 children under 15 were re-vaccinated, which again is less than the number
recorded for 1957 (249), and of those 95 per cent. were between the ages of 5 and 14
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