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It will be noted that the number of new cases attending the Centres
during 1947 was the highest yet recorded, while the total number of
attendances was the highest, with the one exception of 1938. These
increases were not quite uniform throughout the District, the number
of new cases showing a decrease at Rickman Hill, Sylverdale Road and
Sanderstead Hill, the first being compensated for by the increase in reattendances
and the latter by the very satisfactory numbers attending
the newly-opened Centre off Limpsfield Road, Sanderstead.
The fact that the total number of sessions held is not only the largest
yet recorded but considerably greater than before the war explains partly
why the Health Visitors have been unable to pay so many home visits,
especially if it is remembered that the number of Ante-Natal Clinic
sessions is also almost double the number it was in 1938.
To a slight extent the Health Visitors have been helped when very
short-handed by the employment of a part-time experienced Assistant
Nurse to weigh the children at certain of the Centres, thus saving a
second Health Visitor from being present at some of the larger Centres.
While it is naturally preferable to have a second Health Visitor when
two are required at a Centre, when it becomes, as at present, a choice
between a serious drop in the number of home revisits and additional
trained help at the Centres, it is probably more advantageous to the
scheme to give relief in the Centres, and this might be extended to
advantage.
The voluntary helpers at these Centres, the Ante-Natal Clinics and
Diphtheria Immunisation Clinics continued to give valuable assistance,
which is greatly appreciated, and which it is hoped they will cofttinue
to render after the reorganisation in 1948.
Toddlers' Clinics.
Since 1939 the Council has devoted regular monthly sessions at five
of the Infant Welfare Centres to supervising the health of children over
two years of age; previously these attended, but were apt to be overlooked
on account of the attention claimed by the newly-born babies.

It was disappointing to note a fall in the number of these attendances
in 1947 after an improvement in the previous year. This age group
also receives attention in the Nurseries and Nursery Schools, where the
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