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in Middlesex). The question was discussed with the officers of the
Ministry of Health, as to whether this additional provision should be met
by local district councils, or by the County Council. The Ministry's
policy was based on the findings of the final report of the Departmental
Committee on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity, which stressed the
advantage of maternity provision being made in conjunction with general
hospitals. In reference to the particular case of Harrow and Wembley,
the Minister preferred the County Council making the necessary provision.
In December, 1935, the County Council approved, in principle, of the
provision as a public health measure of such maternity accommodation
at the County general hospitals as may be necessary adequately to meet
the legitimate needs of the County, that is to say, not only for those women
who are financially necessitous, or who require hospital confinement for
medical reasons, but for women not included in these classes who themselves
desire to enter hospital for their confinement.
The Council continued to endeavour to be permitted to provide
maternity accommodation apart from that proposed by the County
Council, .the grounds for their case being, (1) the inadequacy of the
County Council's proposals, in that not only was no provision made for
the further growth of the population, but that even at that time it was
patent that the maximum figure of 40 per cent, adopted as the County's
standard was too low ; (2) the dissociation of the services from the Council's
maternity and child welfare scheme. These points were submitted by
a deputation at a meeting early in 1937. Later in the year it was learned
the County Council had purchased Bushey Heath Clinic, to be run as a
maternity home. A deputation to the Ministry of Health, which urged
that the district council was the proper authority to acquire the clinic as
a maternity home, was informed that the Minister looked to the County
Council, the authority responsible for the provision of hospital accommodation,
as the authority responsible for the provision of maternity
hospital accommodation. From this time onwards then, the Council
accepted liability for the admission to hospital only of the small number
of cases the consultant obstetrician wished admitted under his own care.
In 1938, the added accommodation available at Redhill Hospital,
and its annexe at Bushey Heath, enabled many more than formerly to be
admitted for institutional confinements, women being accepted even
though on no other grounds than their own preference. This happy
situation was not of long duration though, and it was not long before
selection of cases for admission again had to be practised, preference
being given to those whose needs were based on medical grounds, the
next preference being given to primiparae. During the war years the
situation deteriorated still further, and admission had to be limited still
more rigidly. The demand for admission rose not only because of the
loss by destruction of certain accommodation in London, but also because
of the great increase in the group of very difficult domestic circumstances,
brought about partly by lack of accommodation in the home, and partly
by the paucity of help in the home. Not many local mothers elected to
take advantage of the facilities for admission to a hostel in the country
before her confinement. During this last year there has been no easing
up in the difficulties experienced by so many mothers, who are obliged to
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