View report page

The establishment (under the auspices of the hospital authorities) of day hospitals showed
that such hospitals could provide a focal point for community care. The staff of the hospitals
and the local authority worked in close co-operation. A psychiatric social worker was
attached to the Paddington day hospital, attending meetings and case conferences there on
two mornings a week. In addition, the mental welfare workers referred patients to the
day hospital. Agreement in principle was reached with the hospital authorities that a
psychiatric social worker should attend Westminster hospital, but implementation awaited
the appointment of staff for this purpose.
In the latter part of the year a scheme was put into operation to provide occupational
therapy for mentally ill patients in their own homes. Up to three sessions a week, formerly
allocated for the instruction of tuberculosis patients by a diversional therapist, were
allotted for this purpose. Staff shortages caused some delay in putting the scheme into
operation but it is now working well.
DIVISION 3, comprising the boroughs of Finsbury, Holborn and Islington
Dr. W. G. Harding reports:
Maternity and child welfare—Arrangements which enabled Mr. Gordon Bourne,
obstetric consultant, St. Bartholomew's hospital, to conduct an ante-natal session at Leage
Street welfare centre, Finsbury, from May established a valuable link between the hospital,
the community and the personal health services. General practitioner obstetricians are
welcome to attend at the sessions in order to carry out examinations of their own booked
cases in association with the midwife, and Mr. Bourne is available for consultation.
In accordance with the recommendations of the Maternity Services (Cranbrook) Committee
and the policy agreed by the Local Medical Committee for London, progress was
made with the scheme under which general practitioner obstetricians who wished to do so
carry out ante- and post-natal examinations at fixed times in co-operation with the midwife
in the Council's maternity and child welfare centres. Only one general practitioner
obstetrician practises in the borough of Holborn and he started to see his own booked
cases at the Province of Natal centre in June. In November all general practitioner
obstetricians practising in the boroughs of Finsbury and Islington were invited to a meeting.
The meeting decided in principle to try the scheme on the basis that general practitioner
obstetricians who wish to work at a particular centre and who attend a sufficient number
of cases in the catchment area would form a centre rota, while others who deal with small
numbers could attend the centre on an ad hoc basis by arrangement with the midwife.
It was also decided to draw up provisional rotas for further consideration by the general
practitioner obstetricians interested in the scheme. At the end of the year 19 general
practitioner obstetricians in 14 partnerships had expressed a wish to participate and rotas
were being prepared.
Health education: smoking advisory sessions—Although the recommendation by the
Royal College of Physicians in their report on smoking and health that the Government
might investigate the values of anti-smoking clinics brought no lead from the Government,
it was thought worthwhile to try out advisory sessions in division 3 under section 28 of the
National Health Service Act, 1948. Keen interest had been shown in such a project by Dr.
Wallace Craig, chest physician, Islington chest clinic, Dr. V. Freeman, borough medical
officer of health, Islington, the Islington Youth Committee and the divisional staff. It was
possible, therefore, to undertake this as a co-operative health education project to which
the local health authority, hospital service and the public health department of a metropolitan
borough council contributed.
The Health Committee approved advisory sessions being started, on an experimental
basis, at East Islington welfare centre for adults who wished to give up smoking;
weekly evening sessions (5.30-7.30 p.m.) have been held there since November. General
107