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application than this, and the beds are available for children
under the care of general medical practitioners on application
to the Medical Officer of Health during office hours, or to the
Hospital at other times. The Council pay the Hospital
£1,524 per annum but they retain the hospital fees for these
cases. The fees are moderate and the scale in use is the one
used by the Invalid Children's Aid Association for convalescent
home purposes. It is based on the number of " units "
in a family, each adult counting as two units and each of the
family counting as one unit. Certain deductions are made
from the family gross income. These deductions include the
charges which would go on whether the child is in hospital or
not, for example, such items as rent, heating, travelling expenses,
etc. In this way the hospital charge is based as near
as possible on the actual cost of the child in the home. For
the ten months during which the scheme was in operation the
total income amounted to £34 1s. 3d. In addition there were
£4 10s. 6d. arrears outstanding at the end of the year, some of
which are accounted for by children still undergoing treatment.
Sixty-seven children were admitted during the year, 46
were discharged cured, 6 were improved in health and in 3
cases there was no change. Three children died.
(j) & (k) Institutional Midwifery. The Council has an
arrangement with two voluntary hospitals in the Borough
for the reservation of beds for institutional midwifery.
(1) British Hospital for Mothers and Babies. This is a
voluntary hospital with 42 beds. It has an intern and extern
midwifery service, and is an instructional centre for midwives.
Its present premises were opened in 1922, in which year the
Council entered into an agreement with the Managers whereby
sufficient accommodation for 144 confinements per annum is
reserved for cases sent by the Medical Officer of Health.
Ante-natal supervision is given to all cases, and ante-natal