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40
REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE MATERNITY AND CHILD
WELFARE DEPARTMENT for the Year 1S26.
The Staff.
The work of the Maternity and Child Welfare Department
is carried on under the provisions of the Maternity and Child
Welfare Act, 1918, which authorises a local authority to make
suitable arrangements for attending to the health of expectant and
nursing mothers, and of children up to the age of five years.
Legislation was initially undertaken to seek to remedy the
very large infant mortality that formerly existed, and this object
is being undoubtedly secured; but the greater concentration on the
infants of the first two years of life has resulted in a somewhat
scanty attention to the toddlers of two to five years of age that is
unfortunate. At the age of five children come under continuous
observation by the School Medical Officers, but there exists a break
in adequate medical supervision that allows development of some
of the " ailments " to which attention was directed a year ago
(in the quotation from the Annual Report of 1914) as still persisting,
a blank which can only be filled by an increase in the staff
of Health Visitors.
The present staff of the Department consists of the Assistant
Medical Officer in charge, five Health Visitors and a Clerk.
The staff of Health Visitors does not meet the recommendations
of the Ministry of Health, and is actually smaller than
it was formerly. The result is a loss of efficiency all round, which
is to be deprecated. The appointment of an additional Health
Visitor is urgently required.
Further demands on the time of the present staff of Health
Visitors have been made by the widening of the scope of the work
of the Department, through the opening of clinics for Artificial
Light Treatment and for Ophthalmic Treatment of infants.
Infant Welfare Clinics.
Infant Welfare Clinics are held as follows:—
White House, Plashet Grove, on
Monday, Thursday and Friday, at 2 p.m.
St. John's Church Hall, North Woolwich, on
Tuesday, at 2.30 p.m.