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The Health of Barking
In the little table which is set forth on this page is shown the number of
consultations which have been held during the last three years. It is a very small
amount because since the Barking
Hospital has closed as an Emergency
Hospital we haven't had the beds.
But it is, I hope, a department of our
work which we shall retain, in order
that it may grow naturally when we
have beds which may be made
available for this very necessary part
of our work.
Children's Specialist.
I found that Mary had a little more confidence than she should have had in
her doctor at the clinic. Women do get like this, and John, on the other hand, was
at times inclined to be sceptical; I think he was all the more sceptical because of
Mary's exaggerated confidence.
He came to me one day and pointed out that, after all, these doctors are doing
ante-natal work one day, school-children the next day and infant welfare clinic
the next day, and also had many other things at other times, including hospital work,
examining people for superannuation, etc., and that he knew they could not be
experts, and he, not unnaturally, wanted to know all about it—what did, in fact,
happen when anything happened which was beyond the competency of a doctor
who has so many irons in the fire ? I pointed out to him that we had a Children's
Specialist who visited Barking every other week and that all the assistant Medical
Officers and general practitioners have a right to send difficult cases to this Children's
Specialist. John thought this a very sound scheme and so do I, and so, I am
confident, do you.
Health Visitors.
Mary was clinic-minded and, apart from the post-natal clinic, there was no
difficulty whatsoever in getting her to attend all the others. John was talking to
me one day as to why so many of the nurses to be found at clinics were Health
Visitors. I had to point out to him that health visiting was the backbone of the
maternity and child welfare service in the past, and that it is still the backbone,
although sometimes I feel, having regard to the little time we can now spend on
home visiting that we are a filleted kipper !
It is not only that clinics generally are overcrowded, but somehow or another
a heart-to-heart talk in a woman's own home, for reasons I don't understand, does
mean more than the same voice spoken at a clinic or in a hospital out-patients
department. An expectant mother is more confiding and the Health Visitor is more
conversant with the domestic circumstances of the case.

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