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6.
HEALTH VISITORS,
No detailed record is given here of the work of the Health Visitors
but it will suffice to say that this has increased materially during the year,
and apart from their health visiting they are engaged in various activities
carried out at the Health Centres.
VOLUNTARY WORKERS.
It is gratifying to record that the voluntary workers who help so
materially at the child Welfare sessions, continued to do so despite many other
calls upon their time resulting from war-time conditions. The assistance which
they give is of primary importance and it is not an exaggeration to say that some
of the heavier sessions could not be successfully carried out without them,
HENDON EMERGENCY & ISOLATION HOSPITAL,
The year 1941 saw the Hospital again functioning in a dual capacity,
with the bed allocation as between infectious diseases and E.M.S. patients
approximately the same as in the previous year. Cubicle space continued to bo
limited, with the result that special cases had occasionally to be transferred'
elsewhere, but all diphtheria and scarlet fever cases for which admission was
requested were accommodated.
By comparison with the figures for 1940, the total number of cases of
infectious disease admitted during the year shows an increase of approximately 50
per cent. This increase, however, is more apparent than real, v/hen it is
remembered that during 1940 large numbers of the child population were temporarily
evacuated and have since returned. Despite the increase in the admissions of
infectious disease, only three deaths occurred during the period under review —
two from diphtheria and one from cerebro-spinal meningitis.
Apart from scarlet fever and diphtheria, the remaining cases comprised
a wide variety of pathological conditions. The group labelled "Tonsillitis" were
largely cases notified as scarlet fever or diphtheria which, subsequent to
admission, were proved by bacteriological investigation to be suffering from some
other form of tonsillitis.
Children suffering from measles made up the next largest group of
admissions, the majority of children contracting this disease are nursed at home,
so that the number of measles admissions is no criterion of the prevalence of
the disease. Both Measles and Whooping Cough are on occasions very serious