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80
Fees.
10. The scale of fees to be charged for the services of midwives
as midwives or maternity nurses to be as follows:—
Attendance of Midwife for 14 days £3 10 0
Attendance of Maternity Nurse for 14 days £2 7 6
The fees may be reduced in appropriate cases"
The Council's proposals for the midwifery services were based
on the assumption of an increasing number of births taking place,
the proportions of those which would take place in the patients'
own homes, nursing homes and hospitals being based on the ratios
that obtained in 1935. On these assumptions the figures submitted
were:—
1935. 1936. 1937.
No. of confinements 2,523 2,900 3,300
No. occurring in patients' homes 1,377 — 1,800
attended by midwives 822 1,080
other attendants 555 720
In 1936 the actual number of births registered was 2,979 (2,873
live and 106 stillbirths). As more confinements took place in outside
hospitals in 1936 than in 1935 (805 as compared with 539) and more
in local nursing homes (726 as compared with 521), the number of
confinements in the home in 1936 were actually less than the number
in 1935. It should therefore not prove necessary to appoint at the
inception of the midwifery service all of the maximum of 18 for
which provision was made in the scheme.
NURSING AND MATERNITY HOMES.
Following their being constituted the Local Supervising Authority
under the Midwives Acts, the Council made application to the
Middlesex County Council to have delegated to them the powers and
duties under the Nursing Homes Registration Act, 1927. This
request was acceded to as from November 1st.
There are in the district 23 registered homes of which 17 are
registered for the reception of maternity cases either solely or in
addition to other classes of cases; 3 receive only mental or nerve
cases, while one is a children's convalescent home. Particulars or
the addresses and the accommodation at these homes appear in
the Annual Report for 1935.
There is in the district a Christian Science Nursing Home to
which the Minister of Health has granted exemption from the
operation of the Act; while the Council has, by its powers under
Section 6, granted exemption for a period of one year to two voluntary
hospitals in the area.