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DIVISION 7, comprising the boroughs of Camberwell and Lewisham.
Dr. E. A. Mower White reports:
Maternity and
child welfare
The full range of maternity and child welfare has been maintained.
Routine weighing of babies at child welfare sessions has been discouraged. Regular
weighing is carried out at the first visit, and repeated after four weeks and at six months
of age. Foster children and children placed for adoption are weighed at every visit.
Children are weighed at other times if required. The reaction of staff and mothers to
this chanee will be watched and the experiment will be reviewed.
Day nurseries
and
occasional
crdches
The fall in attendances at the North Lewisham day nursery led to its closure in
August and the transfer of the children to Rushey Green day nursery, where the indoor
accommodation and the playground were extended by adaptations. The creche in
Camberwell was closed in May owing to insufficient use; that at Lewisham continues
to be well attended.
School health
service
Approval was given to the building at a small extension to the Lewisham school
treatment centre to provide a dental recovery room for the two surgeries in the premises.
A new development is the provision at Queen's Road Centre, Peckham, of a child
guidance unit.
The divisional treatment organiser's staff was concentrated at the divisional office,
and the separate office at Lewisham was discontinued.
Prophylaxis
The number of sessions was kept under constant review and three extra vaccination
sessions were held at one centre to deal with an exceptional increase in attendances
owing to a local smallpox 'scare'.
Poliomyelitis vaccination sessions have been held in centres, schools and business
premises. By the end of the year, 50,000 persons had had the complete primary course
of two injections.
The B.C.G. inoculation of schoolchildren aged 13-14 years has continued, the
work being carried out by a divisional team.
Home help
service
Home safety
A third home help office was opened to serve the southern part of the division.
Among the many aspects of health education in the centre and in the home, the
prevention of accidents takes a consistently important place. A valuable contribution
in this field has been the scheme for providing fireguards for necessitous families,
where old people or children are in danger of burns.
Co-operation
Consultation has taken place at all levels, and the value of the consultations has been
reflected in the subsequent action. Of special interest was the issue of a periodical bulletin
to the general practitioners in the division, dealing with matters of common interest.
The demand for special nursing equipment in the home continues to grow and is met
either by the division, or by arrangement with the welfare and hospital services.
Review of
first ten
years
As the division has completed 10 years' of life, it is interesting to note the principal
changes that have occurred since its inception in 1948.
During the period, 12 new welfare centres have been opened, in rented or adapted
premises, to serve new areas or to replace unsatisfactory accommodation often in church
halls. Seven new school treatment centres have been started. Of the ten voluntary
committees who ran centres in 1948, seven still continue. The number of day nurseries
has fallen from eight (with 439 places) to six (with 294 places), and the average daily
attendance from over 350 to 225. Associated with this decline in the day nurseries
is an increase in child-minding from 103 children minded by 39 minders in 1948 to
329 children minded by 133 minders in 1958.
The home help service has responded to the national policy of using it as an ancillary
to the other medical and hospital services for confinement cases and for chronic sick
persons. The full-time equivalent number of helps employed has grown from 185 to
380, and the number of households served from 1,160 to 3,075.
136