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122
Medical Aid.

Fees paid to Doctors.
Seventy accounts were received from general medical practitioners
for assistance rendered to midwives under the provisions
of the Medical Practitioners (Fees) Regulations. The total amount
paid to medical practitioners during the year was £207 17s. Od.
Midwifery—Institutional and Domiciliary.
Under the National Health Service all hospital treatment,
which includes treatment in a maternity hospital, is free. Although
no charge is made to mothers confined at home for the services of
doctor and/or midwife, they have to meet many incidental expenses
(e.g., cost of domestic help, equipment, food, washing, laundry, etc.)
which are avoided by mothers who are confined in hospital. This
very obvious discrimination in favour of hospital against domiciliary
midwifery is responsible for the progressive relative increase in
hospital confinements at the very time when the demand for other
hospital beds cannot be met; and the anomaly of the position is
bewildering, not only to mothers themselves—and to the doctors
and midwives who are prepared to attend them at home—but to the
general public.