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30
The ground floor will be used for the Child Welfare
Centre for Erith and the Antenatal and Dental Clinics,
and also for the purpose of a school clinic for minor
ailments, dental and opthalmic work.
Tne first floor will be occupied by the maternity
beds and children's cots with necessary annexes. The
stable and coach house is to be converted into an operating
theatre for adenoids and tonsils with a room for
patients to lie down and recover in after operation.
It is proposed to provide one maternity ward with
3 beds, an observation ward (1 bed) and a children's
cot ward with 5 beds, with labour room, ward kitchen,
bathroom, &c. Preference is to be given to necessitous
cases, and one bed is to be reserved for emergency cases.
A small charge has been fixed for cases admitted, but
this can be reduced or remitted entirely where the
circumstances of the patient are such as to render it
necessary.
It will be possible when these new premises are
opened to hold classes for mothers in various subjects
such as personal hygiene, care of infants and older
children, making of (suitable clothing, &c.
I have asked Dr. J. Lorimer Hawthorne to write a
few notes on the work of the Infant Welfare Centres,
and the Antenatal Clinic, and these are inserted here.
" A glance at the figures given on pages 27 and 28
will. convince the readers that we are justified in
believing that the Infant Welfare work during the past
year has been a success.
" The increasingnumbers that attend all the clinics
prove that the establishment of these clinics was desirable
and indeed necessary.
" When the centres at Erith and Belvedere were
first opened, the attendance was composed principally