View report page

54
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
The increasing demands on the maternity and child welfare
services are reflected in the statistics for the year, for in almost
every instance substantial advances are to be observed. This
expansion in the work may be attributed in varying degrees to
the record number of births which occurred in the previous year,
to the additional population, to the greater appreciation of the
service by the mothers, and to the sustained efforts made to teach
the mothers that regular medical advice is of vital importance in
maintaining their health during pregnancy and in securing the
well being of their children throughout the early years of life.
Although the scheme developed in the Borough may be
regarded as a fairly complete one, minor extensions or improved
methods of procedure are constantly being adopted. In the year
under review one important innovation has to be noted as having
taken place. Arrangements were inaugurated whereby children
susceptible to diphtheria may be immunized and so protected
from the disease. Children under 5 years of age submitted by
their parents for immunization are referred to the school medical
department where children of school age are similarly immunized.
Details of this work are to be found subsequently in this Report
on page 77.
The collection of fees for treatment frequently presents difficulties
and the arrangements which the Council have made whereby
members of the Hospital Saving Association may be assisted
with regard to payments for treatment should prove valuable in
many respects. Any measure which will obviate the nursing staff
acting as debt collectors is to be commended as the preservation
of a sympathetic relationship between the health visitor and the
mother is a matter of vital importance to the work. Details of
the payments made by the Association are to be found on page 84.
New Health Centres.—In the report for 1933 the decision of
the Council to provide a new Health Centre in the northern portion
of Greenford was recorded, while in the report for 1934 details were
given of the proposal to build a subsidiary Centre at Peri vale.
It was anticipated that these two buildings, which become more and
more essential as these areas develop, would have been opened
during 1935, but although tenders for the Greenford Green Centre