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51
All that is required ill this Subsidiary Centre is a waiting room,
a weighing room or Health Visitor's room and a Doctor's room, together
with suitable sanitary accommodation. This would serve for child
consultations and for ante-natal work. It would also serve for the
inspection of school children and for the treatment of minor ailments.
Any further treatment of school children such as dental and ophthalmic
treatment would have to be done at Ravenor Park Health Centre, but
the children would then be accompanied by their parents and definite
appointments would be made for them. I estimate that not more than
two sessions for children under five years of age, one ante-natal session
and two sessions for school children for medical inspection and three
for minor ailments each week would require to be held. Thus there
would be no occasion on which School Medical sessions and Maternity
and Child "Welfare sessions would be held at the same time as at the
other larger Health Centres.
The Borough Surveyor is in communication with the owners of
the land I have indicated as a site and I have had a plan prepared of
a suitable building which is estimated to cost £860.
You will of course have to bear in mind that additional staff will
be required to carry out the medical work at this Centre along with
that at the North Greenford Centre. This additional staff I hope to
report on towards the end of the present financial year when I shall
be better able to gauge the extent of the increased work and the means
for meeting the needs of other branches of public health work."
As a consequence of this report the Council decided to establish
the suggested Centre but difficulty in securing a suitable site has
delayed progress in providing it.
The summaries of the work of the Health Visitors and of the
activities at the Health Centres, given on the following pages,
convey an idea of the extent to which the services are utilised,
It is noteworthy that since 1928, with an increase in population
of 98,660 to 133,446, the attendances at the Centres, both of children
and of expectant mothers, have more than doubled.
The Health Visitors receive very valuable assistance from a
number of ladies who give their help at the afternoon sessions for
children. Thanks are due to these ladies, prominent among whom
are Mrs. Ludlow, Mrs. Narraway, Mrs. Parry and Miss Peal.
The resignation of Miss Eleanor Evans, the Supervising Health
Visitor, owing to continued ill-health, severed a link with the
earliest days of maternity and child welfare work in Ealing. Miss
Evans was in charge of the work from the year 1917, when sessions
were held at the Town Hall with one room serving as waiting room,
medical officer's room and undressing room. She helped in the
great progress that has been made since these early days. Miss
Evans will be greatly missed, both by her colleagues and by many
of the mothers who had come to regard her with real affection.