View report page

Home Helps.—A home help was provided in hve cases. Great difficulty was again experienced in securing women
suitable and willing to undertake this essential work. The Council were faced with a similar labour problem towards the
end of the year in endeavouring to establish the domestic help scheme suggested in Ministry of Health Circular 179/44,
which extended, as an experiment, the operation of the home helps service under maternity and child welfare powers
to sick or infirm persons. No domestic help was supplied during the remainder of 1944.
Child Life Protection.—The number of persons on the register who, at the end of the year, were undertaking for
reward the nursing and maintenance of foster children, was four, and the children in their care numbered four. The
Council's health visitors, acting as child protection visitors, made a total of 19 inspections.
Illegitimate Children.—With the approval of the Minister of Health the Council adopted a scheme for the care of
illegitimate children, including the establishment of a system of guaranteed payments to foster mothers and increased
financial assistance to voluntary moral welfare associations.
Premature Infants.—Arrangements were made to give effect to the recommendations of Ministry of Health Circular
20/44, dated 22nd March, 1944, relating to the care of premature infants at home or in hospital.
Dental Treatment.—By arrangement, certain sessions at the Dental Clinic of the London County Council at No. 217,
Lisson Grove are set aside for the inspection and treatment of mothers and children under the maternity and child
welfare scheme of the Borough Council. Statistics for 1944: sessions held, 107; new cases—mothers 144, children 39;
attendances-—-mothers 648, children 59; X-ray examinations, 21; extractions—mothers 315, children 27; patients
provided with dentures at cost price, 24; fillings, 154; other operations, 475.
Maternity Cases.—Accommodation for maternity cases was available within the Borough at the Middlesex Hospital,
and also at the Paddington Hospital of the London County Council. Miss Hilda Grace Johnson, M.D., B.S., one of the
Council's part-time maternity and child welfare medical officers, filled a vacancy on the panel of local obstetric consultants
set up to assist doctors in the area in difficulties or complications arising during pregnancy or at or after
confinement. The emergency obstetric service of the London County Council also continued to be available in case of
need.
Convalescent Homes.—One mother and baby were sent for four weeks to a post-natal home in Reading; four
children were admitted to a convalescent home at Byfleet for periods varying from four to eighteen weeks.
SECTION G.—SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES.
Water.—Apart from water obtained for domestic purposes from private wells at three large blocks of flats, a constant
supply throughout the Borough is provided through the mains of the Metropolitan Water Board, and no complaint
as to insufficiency or quality was received during the year. In accordance with the provisions of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1936, the Board notified six instances where water had been cut off in occupied premises for nonpayment
of rate; in all cases the supply was reinstated, in two instances after service of an intimation notice. Private
well waters were examined periodically by the Public Analyst and the Council's Bacteriologist with satisfactory results.
Drainage.—The number of plans approved was 55, all relating to old buildings. Inspections made by the sanitary
inspectors numbered 896.
Combined Drainage.—Orders under seal as to combined drainage were issued in 3 cases.
Public Conveniences.—The usual supervision was exercised over the 15 public sanitary conveniences (11 for men,
4 for women).
Public Cleansing and Salvage.—Amounts dealt with: house and trade refuse, 24,434 tons; street sweepings and
gulley slop, 2,062J tons; salvaged materials, 3,402| tons, including 2,048 tons of kitchen waste for pig and poultry
feeding collected from 550 bins placed at intervals in the streets for the reception of this material. A sum of
£9,269 13s. 4d. was obtained from the sale of salvaged materials. In addition, £359 17s. lOd. was received for the removal
of trade refuse, green offal, and the cleansing of petrol interceptors.
Shops.—Inspections under the Shops Act, 1934, numbered 488. In 23 instances service of notice was necessary.
Diseased or Infirm Persons.—Twenty-five of these difficult and often distressing cases were dealt with during the
year. In one instance it was necessary to obtain a Magistrate's Order, under Section 224 of the Public Health (London)
Act, 1936, for the removal to hospital of an aged, infirm and physically incapacitated woman from an insanitary dwelling.
Bed Bugs.—Sixty-five dwellings (including 14 municipal flats) where bugs were found were disinfested. Verminous
furniture belonging to 22 families, 2 of whom were dishoused as the result of enemy action, was treated by the
hydrogen cyanide process. The mobile hot-air disinfestor continued in use, and 2,104 bundles of bedding from air-raid
shelters and 1,270 blankets from hostels were dealt with.