London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Kingston upon Thames 1937

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kingston-upon-Thames]

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16
(iii) Health Visitors.

The Health Visitors paid the following number of home visits :—

First Visits.Total Visits.
Expectant Mothers184304
Infants under one year ..5043,093
Children, one to five year;4,777
Incidental and Infectious437

As a routine procedure the Health Visitors make their
first visits at the end of fourteen days in midwives' cases,
and at the end of the first month in doctors' cases.
Subsequent visits are paid every two months up to the
age of six months, then every quarter up to the age of two
years, and finally every six months up to the age of five.
There are now very few unnotified births, but in each
case a letter, embodying an extract of the Act, asking for
an explanation of failure to notify the birth is sent to the
father of the child in every instance of an unnotified birth.
(iv) Child Life Protection.
The duties imposed by the Children and Young Persons
Acts and by the Public Health Act, 1936, are entrusted to
the Maternity and Child Welfare Sub-Committee of the
Public Health Committee.
The general procedure adopted was fully described in
the Annual Report for 1930.
During the year 7 new registrations were approved and
4 foster mothers either removed from the Borough or
ceased to have charge of infants, so there remained at the
end of the year 26 foster mothers in charge of 29 infants.
It is the routine duty of an Infant Life Protection
Visitor to visit every foster mother at least once a month,
and more frequently when found necessary.
During the year 536 visits were paid, this work being
most satisfactorily carried out by the Health Visitors,