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The whole question of providing an efficient midwifery service is a very
difficult one in Barking, as indeed it is throughout the whole country.
We have large, well-endowed hospitals, which are further supported by
voluntary subscriptions and which conduct midwifery at an uneconomic price.
Similarly, we have large training schools which are anxious to get cases to demonstrate
midwifery to their pupils and at which midwifery is conducted at an
uneconomic price.
It is in these circumstances that people have come to value midwifery in terms
of this uneconomic price, so that frankly it is difficult for a well-trained midwife
to make a paying proposition of her profession.
You very wisely in your admissions to your Maternity Home say that people
who can afford to pay the actual cost shall be asked to pay the actual cost, and I
feel that until all other organisations charge an economic rate to people who can
afford to pay, the profession of midwifery will never attract a sufficient number of
highly educated and well-trained women.
It is very beautiful to think that there have been so many women who have
sacrificed themselves in order to provide this necessary service for other women,
but I doubt very much whether a business nation can afford to try to run such an
important service largely on a voluntary basis.
12. NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE.
You, as a Council, have nothing to do with National Health Insurance, but
your Medical Officer is in personal touch with almost every medical practitioner in
Barking, and this promotes a spirit of co-operation between the work of the National
Health Insurance Commissioners and other departments of public medicine.
13. POOR LAW MEDICAL OUT-RELIEF.
Similarly, your Medical Officer is in touch with the medical services maintained
by the Public Assistance Committee, and once again I wish to thank Dr. O'Loughlin
for the very courteous way in which he has co-operated with me on many occasions.