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It will be seen that the total number of medical inspections has grown from
728 in 1934 to 895 in 1935, and the total number of attendances for treatment from
2,664 to 3,237.
(r) Infant Life Protection (under Part I of the Children Act, 1908, as amended by
Part V of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1932).—Your Health Visitors and
Chief Sanitary Inspector are all Infant Life Protection Visitors, and regular visits
are paid to all children coming within the meaning of the Act.
I am not satisfied that present legislation is sufficient to enable you to carry out
all the work which you would like to do. There is relatively little difficulty with
the foster mother who is approved and who receives a foster child for a period of
time, but there is difficulty with foster children who are constantly moving from one
foster parent to another and from one local sanitary area to another. Medical
officers generally take this matter very seriously and notify one another confidentially
of the movement of foster children, but there is this difficulty—a foster child may
be passed from A, through B, to C and, so long as the intermediary B does not keep
the child for more than twenty-four hours or does not receive the child for gain,
there is no obligation on him or her to notify anybody, and so the chain of
notifications, which is so necessary for the safety of these children, is broken.
It may, of course, be urged that C must notify the reception of an infant, but it
is not so readily possible for the local authorities to check up on one another as is
so commonly done in other cases.
(s) Maternity and Nursing Homes.—During the year no less than 356 children
were born in your Maternity Home.