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72
Section 6.
This section prohibits in the area of any local authority to
which it is applied by order of the Minister of Health unqualified
persons from acting as maternity nurses for gain, with saving
provisions in respect of (a) persons undergoing training
with a view to becoming fully qualified medical practitioners or
certified midwives, (b) persons attending women in registered
nursing homes, etc., and (c) women certified by the authorities of
approved hospitals or other institutions to have been trained in
obstetric nursing. Early in the year application was made to the
Minister for the Order to be put in force in the district, and later
intimation was received that the Minister had made the Harrow
Urban (Midwifery: Prohibition of Unqualified Persons) Order,
1938, applying Section 6 to the Urban District as from June 1st.
NURSING AND MATERNITY HOMES.
Particulars of the registered nursing homes in this district
were given in the Report for the year 1935. One new nursing
home was registered during the year, No. 1, Lyncroft Avenue, for
one surgical or maternity case. No. 121-123, College Hill Road
was extended and registered for 10 maternity cases, St. Ann's
Nursing Home similarly for four maternity cases, while No. 21-23,
Albert Road changed hands.
Exemption from registration was again granted for a period
of one year to two voluntary hospitals in the area.
Nursing homes are inspected every six months by an Assistant
Medical Officer and the Superintendent Health Visitor, while those
registered for the reception of maternity cases are visited every
three months.
No special steps are tak'en to discover unregistered homes,
as it is felt that any premises used for this purpose can hardly
escape the knowledge of the health visitors, a study of the local
press, and a scrutiny of the local death certificates.
At the end of the year there were 24 homes registered in this
district, with a total of 187 beds, of which 100 could be used for
maternity cases.
MILK ISSUES.
Owing to the amended scale of income on which the issue of
milk is determined, there was during the year a large increase in
the numbers assisted, the figure in December, 1938, being 1,051,
as compared with 438 for the corresponding month in 1937, and
352 in 1936. Of this number 869 grants were for pasteurised milk
and 182 for packet milk.