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84
General Practitioners.
General Practitioners in the Borough to be written to, and invited to send
cases up for consultation or for special forms of treatment. Reports upon such
cases to be sent from the Hospital to the Practitioners.
Times for Sessions.
To begin with, two sessions each week to be held—one afternoon session and
one evening session.
Staff.
The Clerical and Nursing Staff required would be as follows :—
(i.) Part of time of lady clerk in the Public Health Department to be allocated
to the clerical work.
(ii.) One nurse to begin with—either part-time or whole-time.
If the nurse is engaged for whole-time, she could carry out the clerical duties.
Records.
All records to be kept under numbers. The names and addresses of patients
not to appear on case sheets.
At their meeting on the 20th May, 1930, the Council designated Dr. Helena
Wright for the post of Gynaecologist.
It was later decided to accommodate this Hospital on the ground floor of a
building to be erected on the vacant space at the rear of the Model Welfare Centre,
and plans, which are reproduced as a frontispiece to this Report, were prepared
by Mr. Hustler, the Borough Surveyor.
It will be noted that the building will house three different departments in
such a manner that each will have its own separate entrance.
A Report should for the most part confine itself to recording work done, but
inasmuch as this Hospital is likely to be the first of its kind in the country, brief
reference will be made to the hopes that are entertained of the useful function that
it will perform.
Experience in the now extensive Maternity and Child Welfare Services in the
Borough has taught that there are a large number of ailments, some slight but
debilitating, some serious and likely permanently to cripple health or to shorten
life, from which women suffer, for the diagnosis and treatment of which existing
facilities are inadequate.
Experience of the conditions in this Borough has further convinced the Council
that the demand existing among working class married women for information as
to methods of family limitation is one which should be met by the provision of
facilities through the Public Health Services.
The latter, no less than the former, is essentially a medical question, and reference
to the approved scheme for this Hospital will show that it is intended to place first
rate medical advice upon all these matters at the service of the women of the Borough.
The preparation of plans and negotiations regarding the various sanctions to
be obtained took considerable time, and work was not actually commenced upon
the new building during the year under consideration.