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8
Both Mayday Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital are approved
training school for midwives. Pupils are now able, also, to obtain
their district training in Croydon. The new rules for training
issued by the Central Midwives' Board have altered the original
scheme very materially. The examination for the full certificate
is now in two parts. Part I. is intended to be for candidates who
do not intend to practise midwifery, Part II. is an extension to be
taken by those who desire to become practising midwives. Mayday
Hospital is approved for Part I. and St. Mary's Hospital for Part
II. In addition every local supervising authority shall provide or
arrange for the provision of post-graduate courses of instruction for
midwives practising in its area.
The new schedule laid down will have the advantage of
enabling the Midwives Roll to differentiate between midwives
who are academic midwives only, and midwives who are practising.
The object of the extended period of training is undoubtedly to
raise the standard of midwifery practise as an aid towards a reduction
of maternal mortality. Whether this purpose will be attained
remains to be seen ; the immediate effects will probably be to reduce
the number of candidates on account of the extension of time and
added expense.
A strict supervision has been kept upon Nursing Homes in
the town and on the whole the majority are correctly conducted and
efficiently managed. The matter of foster-children and fostermothers
is one, however, which calls for legislation. There are
far too many loopholes in the relevant part of the Children Act for
a really satisfactory supervision to be maintained by the officers of
the Local Authority.
A full account of the complete Obstetric Service is given in
the body of the report. This service is much appreciated as is
evidenced by the increasing, and at times embarrassingly great,
demands made upon it. It is now a complete service and is
functioning as a fully co-ordinated unit.
The work of the Chief Sanitary Inspector's department is
detailed in Section 13. A heavy increase of work fell upon it on
account of the Typhoid outbreak, and temporary extra assistance
was sanctioned and obtained.
In the five year plan it was estimated that 150 individual unfit
houses were subject to be dealt with, but a revised estimate brings
the figure up to 274. Up to the end of 1937, 152 houses had been
approved for demolition and demolition orders made.
Re-development Areias have been put forward for the Leighton
Street Area, and this has been in due course approved by the