View report page

37
During the year a special clinic for mothers was set up in the Humphrey Ward,
a building adjoining the Upney Maternity Pavilion. The numbers here are steadily
increasing and although the attendances from the area in which the clinic is situated
were expected to be higher, it does fulfil a need, in as much as difficult cases about
to enter the maternity hospital and cases after confinement at the hospital are seen
at this clinic by the resident medical officer. Also, the clinic is used once a month
as a birth control centre, a service you have set up this year.
Foot Clinic.—During the year under review you have considered the question
of setting up a Municipal Foot Clinic, and you have decided that such a clinic shall
be set up.
(e) Nursing in the Home.—During the year two full-time nurses were employed
by the East Barking District Nursing Association, as against only one nurse in the
year 1935, and these have now become permanent—thus the first objective of the
Association has been attained. Another step which was made was the setting up of
a home, fully equipped, for the use of these nurses. This I might say now forms a
nucleus of a progressive service.
The Council make an annual donation to this body and the Executive Committee
of the Association very much appreciate this donation. I myself am of the opinion
that for the district to be adequately served requires the appointment of four
nurses.
The Plaistow Maternity Hospital and District Nurses' Home still continue to
undertake their work, as they have done in the past, in Barking.
This Home is paid by you for various work which it undertakes on your behalf,
but the Council does not make a contribution towards the general district work of
these nurses. I do hope and trust that in this way or in that the district work
undertaken by the Plaistow Nurses will be supported more generously than it has
been in the past.
2. MATEBNITY AND CHILD WELFABE SEBVICES.
The work in connection with Maternity and Child Welfare is carried on under
powers given in the following Acts:—
Notification of Births Act, 1907.
Notification of Births (Extension) Act, 1915.
Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918.
Part I of the Children Act, 1908, as amended by Part V of the Children and
Young Persons Act, 1932.
Midwives Acts 1902-1936.
Public Health Act, 1936.