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

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Kingston upon Thames 1939

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

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24
building supplied by the Ministry of Health and was erected by
direct labour. In addition nursery accommodation was available
at the Kingston Day Nursery, Canbury Park Road, and at Messrs.
Bentalls Ltd. The former has been in existence for many years
and during the period under review was administered by a voluntary
committee of which the Medical Officer of Health was a
member. (A local doctor acted as Honorary Medical Advisor to
the Nursery). The latter was established in 1943 by Messrs.
Bentalls Ltd. as a private nursery to accommodate the children
of their employees between the ages of 1 - 5 years. The
firm's doctor acted as Medical Officer for nursery purposes,
but in this case and the Kingston Day Nursery the Medical Officer
of Health was available for consultation and full co-operation
was obtained. In June 1943, approval was given by the Ministry
of Health to the recognition of both Nurseries as war-time
Nurseries to the extent that both were to continue to operate
under private direction but were to receive a grant of 1/- per
day per attendance subject to supervision by the Ministry of
Health and the local authority. It should be noted that
the grant represented only a small proportion of the expense
involved in running each nursery, and both the Kingston Day
Nursery Voluntary Committee and Messrs .Bentalls are to be
congratulated on their public spirited effort in helping to
meet the demand for nursery accommodation.

The following table gives the total attendances during the years 1941, 1942 and 1943:-

YearSurrey VillaSt. PetersKilnwoodFairfieldKingston Day NurseryBentalls
19418781,337----
194211,7339,1403,155
194310,89910,6079,7326,5835,364*8,268*

*Attendances are recorded, for the purpose of this report
from June 1943, being the date the Nurseries were
approved, officially, as war-time nurseries.
Special attention has always been paid to the care of
the children in the War-time Nurseries. Staff have been
chosen for their experience in handling children under the age
of five years. The essentials of adequate nutrition has been
carefully watched in the diets of the children.
I would like to take this opportunity of expressing my
appreciation of all the good work carried out at the Nurseries
both by full time staff, and by the Health Visitors, voluntary
workers, and the Nursing Auxiliaries from First Aid posts, "A"
and "B"•