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whose Medical Officer of Health was Dr. C. E. Goddard, was an
autonomous maternity and child welfare authority, carrying out
much of the work through the part-time services of the local
District Nursing Association. This Council maintained its own
Isolation Hospital at Rayners Lane, the patients in hospital being
under the care of their own medical attendants, the Council paying
the medical fees of necessitous cases. The Wealdstone Council
(Medical Officer of Health, Dr. R. N. B. Bluett) was also a
maternity and child welfare authority. The home visiting was
undertaken by a single full-time health visitor. This Council in
recent years erected two clinics at which all the infant welfare and
ante-natal sessions were held. Infectious cases requiring hospital
treatment were admitted to the hospitals of other authorities. In
the Hendon Rural District (Medical Officer of Health, the late Dr.
R. L. Romer) the maternity and child welfare services were provided
by the Middlesex County Council. The local Council maintained
its own Isolation Hospital at Honeypot Lane, the patients being
under the care of the Medical Superintendent, the local Medical
Officer of Health. In spite of the opposition of the Middlesex
County Council, the new Harrow Council became the maternity and
child welfare authority for this area. In the former Hendon
Rural District, these services continued to be administered on
behalf of the Harrow Council by the County Council up to 31st
January of this year.
The earliest steps were to promote a uniform service throughout
the whole district, and to provide for all parts of the area the
essentials of a service providing for home visiting of expectant
and nursing mothers, and children under five, and infant welfare
and ante-natal clinics. A number of full-time Health Visitors
have been appointed, each of whom attends the infant welfare
centre and ante-natal clinic for her own area, and also acts as
Infant Protection Visitor for her own district, the arrangements
previously operating in Harrow-on-the-Hill of health visiting by
district nurses being terminated. A number of clinic buildings
are to be erected, which, besides being of use for the holding of
maternity and child welfare clinics, will be used by the school
authorities for the provision of treatment for school children. One
of the pressing needs of the district is for maternity beds.
Not one of the three authorities was a Local Education
Authority, with the result that the Middlesex County Council is
responsible for the education for the whole district. The County
Council was approached on the question of the provision of a
combined nursing service, by which the same staff would act as
school nurses for the Education Committee and as health visitors
for the Maternity and Child Welfare authority. Such an arrangement,
apart from the general advantages inherent in the same staff
supervising the child at pre-school and at school ages, would have