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nursing or teaching staff, together with domestics. The 15 London probationers,
with only an odd exception, will be resident at the Sun Babies' Nursery, and all
of them, both London and country, are given training for the nursery nurse's
diploma of the National Society of Children's Nurseries.
Certain other work requires to be mentioned in connection with the year 1942.
Included are the following items:
In January, it was agreed to afford dental treatment to certain patients sent
by the Bethnal Green Borough Council; in February, it was decided to inoculate
nursery children against whooping cough ; in March, the milk officer's duties, which
had been carried out in the health department with myself as milk officer, were
transferred to the food executive officer on pressure from the Ministry of Food.
Only two or three health departments in London had been carrying out the duties
of milk officer and therefore the odds were against this work being continued by
health departments, in spite of some definite administrative advantages accruing
thereto. Starting in March and continuing throughout the year, an investigation
was carried on in conjunction with the National Institute for Research in Dairying
at Reading, in connection with breast milk. The investigation is with the approval
of the Ministry of Health and of the Medical Research Council, and is likely to be
of considerable help to the central departments in the matter of diets for expectant
and nursing mothers. In March also, two additional evening sessions were provided
at the foot clinic, and throughout the year the number of attendances at the foot
clinic continued to increase. During the autumn, a local campaign, as part of a
national campaign, was started to popularise diphtheria immunisation. The policy
of the Government is for immunisation to be entirely voluntary and therefore a
great deal of time and energy has to be devoted to persuading parents to allow their
children to be treated. The result of this campaign was disappointing, and from
the figures available it appears that there is still a considerable proportion of children
under five years of age which has not been immunised. All that can be done is to
continue with persuasion and publicity and hope that parents will see the light. At
the end of the year, the committee resolved to send their mid wives to do special
courses in connection with analgesia in childbirth, with a view to providing them
with the necessary apparatus at a later stage for simple anaesthetics to be administered
by them to their cases on the district.
In the matter of civil defence, the services were not called on for any special
work during the year. The medical aid posts in the larger shelters were closed at
the beginning of the year, and the stretcher party depot at Haggerston Baths (which
also previously housed a first aid post) was abandoned. Nearly all the shelter
canteens also were closed in the early part of the year. Two motor vans were
purchased for the collection and delivery of bedding for disinfection and disinfestation
purposes. This work continued to increase during the year, and we now undertake
the disinfection by hot air of firewatchers' bedding for a large number of firms in
the borough. The mobile hot air disinfector continued to be of great assistance
in this matter, and altogether during the year over 70,000 articles were treated.
Members of the female first aid post staff have given most useful service in the day
nurseries, which under Ministry of Health direction are rather inadequately staffed,
especially having regard to the amount of sickness which seems to occur amongst
the permanent staff there. Similarly, thanks are due to various members of the
light rescue service for the number of toys and the amount of substantial apparatus,
such as stairs and swings, which they have provided for the amusement and the
education of nursery children.