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27
Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
Four cases of ophthalmia neonatorum, of which details are given below, were
notified during the year. The number in 1937 was ten.
Vision unimpaired 3
Removal from district 1
Died —
4
Home Nursing.
(a) Number of nurses employed at the end of the year for the nursing of
expectant mothers and children under 5 years of age, maternity
nursing, or the nursing of puerperal fever : (i) by the Council, nil;
(ii) by voluntary associations, the time of 1¼ nurses.
(b) Total number of cases attended during the year by these nurses, 66.
Home Helps.
Number of cases in which home helps have been provided during the year,
3.
Convalescent Homes.
(a) Number of convalescent institutions with accommodation for expectant
or nursing mothers or children under 5 years of age:
(i) provided by the Council—nil.
(ii) provided by voluntary associations—accommodation maintained
by the Council at the Zachary Merton Convalescent Home,
Rustington, Sussex, for nursing mothers, and children under
5 years of age.
(b) Number of beds for such cases in convalescent institutions:
(i) provided by the Council—nil.
(ii) provided by voluntary associations—2.
(c) Total number of cases admitted to the beds included in (b) during the
year—15 mothers and 20 babies.
(d) Total number of such cases sent by the Council during the year to
other convalescent institutions—nil.
Midwives.
After a review of the arrangements for a domiciliary midwifery service in London
which were inaugurated on the 1st January, 1938, under the Midwives Act, 1936,
the London County Council expressed satisfaction that the service was operating
with considerable success and decided to continue the existing arrangements with
voluntary organisations, subject to further consideration before the 31st December,
1939. The co-operative arrangements with the borough councils' maternity and
child welfare services are also reported to have functioned satisfactorily, and
periodical conferences between the County Medical Officer of Health and the Medical
Officer of Health in each area will continue to be held as may be necessary.
In September medical practitioners in the Borough were notified of the coming
into operation on the 1st November, 1938, of the County of London (Midwifery—
Prohibition of Unqualified Persons) Order, 1938, made by the Minister of Health
under section 6 (2) of the Midwives Act, 1936. By virtue of the Order and section 6
of the Act of 1936, any unqualified woman or any male person who receives any
remuneration for attending in the Administrative County of London as a nurse on
a woman in childbirth, or at any time during the ten days immediately after childbirth,
becomes liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.
Persons not debarred from such attendance are:—
(a) Women certified under the Midwives Act, 1902, or registered in the
general part of the register of nurses required to be kept under the
Nurses Registration Act, 1919.