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Home Visits.—The six whole-time health visitors paid domiciliary visits as follows: (a) to expectant
mothers, first visits 504, total visits 862; (6) to children under 1 year of age, first visits 941, total
visits 3,232 ; (c) to children between the ages of 1 and 5 years, total visits 2,955.
Milk and Vitamin Products.—The Food Executive Officer has kindly provided the following information
as to dried milk supplied under the National Scheme during the year: full cream, 8,061 20-oz. cartons
at 10£d. per carton ; 177 cartons free : half cream, 336 cartons at 10 $d. per carton; 5 cartons free.
Distribution of vitamin preparations was also made as follow : cod liver oil, 7,779 131-oz. bottles;
orange juice, 44,294 6-oz. bottles at 5d. per bottle; 1,060 bottles free: vitamin A and D tablets,
2,280 packets, each packet containing 45 tablets.
Sheets for Expectant Mothers.—On production of a midwife's certificate that sheets are needed for home
confinement, expectant mothers are entitled to a maximum of three Board of Trade priority utility
sheet dockets. During 1947, 63 applications were received by the Department and 185 dockets
issued, as compared with 131 dockets supplied to 45 applicants in 1946.
Home Help and Domestic Help Services.—The demand for assistance from these services continued
throughout 1947. Difficulty was again experienced in finding and keeping the right type of women
for the work, but the scheme worked satisfactorily and it was found possible to help all genuine cases.
In normal home help cases (confinements at home and after discharge from hospital or nursing home)
the helper was generally sent into the home for two or three weeks, but where aged or infirm people
were concerned, the services of a domestic help were frequently required for an indefinite period.
Helpers were sent into 159 households—86 home help and 73 domestic help—and the number of women
employed by the Council during the year varied from three to six.
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 two, and the children in their
care numbered three. The Council's health visitors, acting as child protection visitors, made a total of
62 visits of inspection to the homes.
Illegitimate Children.—The Council participated in a scheme to provide increased financial assistance
to voluntary moral welfare organisations in London and contributed at the rate of £318 per annum.
Financial aid was given by the Council in three cases, the children being placed in children's homes.
Premature Infants.—The care of premature infants continued to receive special attention. One
hundred and four premature births occurred in the Borough, of which 15 were to St. Marylebone
mothers. Premature births to St. Marylebone mothers occurring in other districts numbered 23.
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 local maternity and child welfare scheme. Statistics for 1947: sessions held, 155;
new cases—mothers 217, children 48; attendances—mothers 1,033, children 180; X-ray examinations,
37; extractions—mothers 573, children 36; patients provided with dentures at cost price, 50;
fillings 410 : other operations 641.
Foot Clinic.—This clinic, conducted as part of the Council's Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme,
held 45 sessions attended by 151 persons.
Remedial Exercises.—Classes for remedial exercises were well supported throughout the year, and
mothers and young children made a total of 1,562 attendances at the 117 sessions held at Welfare
Centres Nos. 1 and 2.
Child Guidance.—Twenty-two clinic sessions were held during the year, and 48 cases made a total of
114 attendances. On the 23rd September, 1947, Dr. Mary D. Fletcher succeeded Dr. Grace Calver
as Psychiatrist in charge of the clinic.
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. The
emergency obstetric service of the London County Council and a panel of local obstetric consultants
continued to be available for any doctor in the area needing assistance in difficulties or complications
arising dining pregnancy or at or after confinement.
Convalescent Homes.—The arrangement with St. Christopher's Nursery Training College and
Convalescent Home, Tunbridge Wells, by which the Council had undertaken for some considerable
time the maintenance of two beds for the use of pre-school children, unfortunately terminated
at the end of August, 1947, owing to a change in ownership. As from the 1st November, 1947, an
agreement was made with the Hart's Leap Toddlers' Convalescent Home, Sandhurst, Camberley,
Surrey, for one bed to be reserved for young children from the Borough.