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
Woolwich 1935
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Woolwich]
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31
The Work of the Welfare Centres.—These are eight in number and are
now all municipal. Infant welfare sessions are held at all of them; ante-natal
sessions are held at four in three instances twice weekly and in one instance once
a month. With the inclusion of the monthly ante-natal session at North Woolwich,
at the end of the year 6.25 ante-natal sessions and 23 infant consultation and
weighing sessions were being held each week.
In tabular form below are shown detailed statistics for 1935 and the con
solidated statistics for the previous year:-
TABLE No. 9.
| Centre. | Number on Roll of Centre. | Number of Attendances. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mothers. | Children. | Mothers. | Children. | |||
| Expectant. | Nursing. | Expectant. | Nursing. | |||
| Town Hall | 322 | 225 | 1,515 | 816 | 336 | 10,530 |
| Plumstead | 270 | 314 | 1,271 | 711 | 774 | 9,795 |
| Eltham | 397 | 179 | 1,019 | 1,048 | 260 | 6,849 |
| Slade | — | 73 | 441 | — | 84 | 4,320 |
| New Eltham | 3 | 67 | 435 | 3 | 95 | 4,809 |
| St. Luke's | — | 52 | 241 | — | 81 | 2,183 |
| North Woolwich | 14 | 34 | 160 | 32 | 47 | 1,411 |
| Beresford Street | 13 | 39 | 177 | 15 | 82 | 1,426 |
| Totals, 1935 | 1,019 | 983 | 5,259 | 2,625 | 1,759 | 41,323 |
| Totals, 1934 | 1,131 | 1,266 | 5,164 | 2,812 | 2,535 | 37,494 |
The next Table, No. 10, shows the number of children and the number of
attendances made by them during the year. It should be noted that children are
classified in the table by year of birth, so that the figures cannot be read as under
one year, under two years and so on. They illustrate, however, quite definitely
the fact that the toddler does not attend such clinics in large numbers and that
as he gets older he attends still less. It was because of this and because there are
no day nurseries or nursery schools in Woolwich that the toddler medical inspection
scheme, reported on later, was started. If toddlers are found at the special
examination clinic to require further observation most of them are brought to
the infant welfare clinics for this purpose.