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practitioners for their patients and to doctors at business houses, hospitals, etc., in the
division. It was possible to recruit extra doctors from the general practitioners both in
and outside the division but the resources of the nursing and clerical staffs were stretched
to the limit; assistance was received from the local office of the children's department in
staffing the evening sessions. All the staff concerned—medical, nursing and clerical—
responded magnificently to the emergency.
Since 1958, when both the need and the public demand for vaccination against poliomyelitis
were high, the City of London Corporation has provided facilities at the Guildhall
for the Council to hold lunch time vaccination sessions, sometimes as many as four a
week, for the eligible day time population of the City. The decline in demand for immunisation
led to the termination of the sessions in 1962; over 90,000 doses of vaccine were
given during the four years in which they operated.
Health education—Activities have continued to expand. Mothers' clubs were formed at
five centres, four meeting during the afternoon and one in the evening; all mothers in the
area covered by each centre were invited to join and no attempt was made to encourage
a selected group. Programmes have included outside speakers on a wide variety of subjects,
all allied to health, and films and filmstrips were followed by lively discussion. Evening
film shows to invited audiences of parents, grandparents, general practitioners and hospital
nursing staff were very successful. In Bethnal Green it was necessary to obtain the use of a
large public hall to accommodate the numbers attending and in Poplar 127 people attended
one evening session. In the Limehouse area a health visitor participated in the activities
of a church mothers' club.
Occasional creche—In May an occasional creche was opened at the Mary Hughes centre,
to accommodate the children of women attending the weekly meeting of a mothers' club
at the centre.
Chiropody—Serious difficulty was experienced in recruiting chiropodists to work in
east London and the service consequently languished far behind that provided in all other
divisions. Although approval was given in October 1961 to an increase of three sessions a
week, it was not until September 1962 that it was possible to bring these additional sessions
into being, so increasing the total sessions from nine to twelve a week. The demand for
the service was very heavy, particularly among older people and central recruitment of
chiropodists was introduced in an effort to secure an increase in the service in the East End.
Prevention of break-up of families—The divisional co-ordinating committee continued to
meet quarterly to discuss the various aspects of co-operation and liaison with other
departments and outside agencies. During the year 34 intermediate case conferences were
held, at which 102 families were considered, many of these having been referred by the
Housing department as being at risk of eviction because of rent arrears. The volume of
work in connection with problem families seems to increase steadily and will make
increasing demands upon the time of case workers and other field workers. Despite staff
shortages, 14 families were helped during the year with intensive case-work.
Day nurseries—A marked decline in the demand for day nursery places in the division
was apparent from 1951 to 1955; the position then remained fairly static until 1959, since
when the downward trend has been even more pronounced and the indications are that
the decline is continuing.
DIVISION 6, comprising the boroughs of Deptford, Greenwich and Woolwich
Dr. F. R. Waldron reports:
Premises—A new maternity and child welfare centre on the ground floor of a block of
flats erected by the borough council in Burney Street, Greenwich, was opened in October.
This centre absorbed sessions in a church hall and a prefabricated building in the area
served.
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