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95
SECTION 7.
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
53. GENERAL.
The Council's Scheme under the Maternity and Child Welfare
Act, 1918, has been extended during the year.
On December 3rd, 1930, an Infant Welfare Clinic was held in
the St. Alban's Hall in the Gale Street Area, and on the same day
an Ante-Natal Clinic was held in those premises. Since this date
one ante-natal session and one infant welfare session have been held
weekly in the St. Alban's Hall.
This is only a temporary arrangement and it is hoped that a
permanent Clinic will soon be provided in this area.
We have now two systems of medical practice, which are not
directly in competition one with another, but which nevertheless
are essentially different and which one cannot help comparing,
economically and otherwise.
On the one hand we have a system of general practice, where
medical men are available for practically the whole of the twentyfour
hours and are called in as and when they are required and
oftentimes at the whim of those who are responsible for the patient
concerned.
. On the other hand we have a system of clinics, where medical
practitioners attend for definite periods.
It is obvious that the clinic system is capable of a degree of
organisation which we can hardly expect to find in general practice,
and it is this possibility of organisation which gives it certain
peculiar advantages. On the other hand, general practice has
certain advantages.