London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Bromley 1945
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bromley]
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19
Care of Premature Infants.
No. of babies notified during 1945 weighing 5½ lbs. or less
at birth was 23. These cases come under the special care and
visitation by the health visitors, and all made satisfactory progress,
with the exception of one case which died at six months
of age.
Home Helps.
Three whole-time Home Helps are employed in the Municipal
Midwifery Service, and also some 50 persons were available
during the year for casual employment. Home Help was
provided for 107 Domiciliary cases in 1945.
(The Home Help Service is not to be confused with the
Domestic Help Service reported on later herein.)
POST-NATAL SERVICES.
Health Visitors : Home Visiting.
748 first visits were made to babies under one year of age,
representing 84 per cent. of infants notified in 1945 within three
weeks of birth. Total number of visits to babies in the first
year of age was 2,282, making approximately 3 visits per child.
The following is a tabulation of all visits during 1945 :—
| Primary visits under 1 year | 748 |
| Revisits under 1 year | 1534 |
| Revisits 1 to 5 years | 3158 |
| Expectant mothers (special visits) | 43 |
| School Children | 315 |
| Infant deaths (special inquiries) | 11 |
| Stillbirth (special inquiries) | 2 |
| Immunisation | 109 |
| Miscellaneous | 272 |
| 6192 | |
| " Ineffectual " visits | 1676 |
| 7868 | |
| Visits to Boarded-out Children (included above) | 43 |
| Visits to Adopted Children (included above) | 27 |
21 per cent. of visits were classed as " ineffectual," which is
5 Per cent. higher than usual.