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9
There were 13 domiciliary midwives, in addition to the Superintendent
and Deputy, employed, who attended at 726 confinements, as compared with
1,234 in hospitals and private maternity homes in the area. All are qualified
in gas and air analgesia, and the four sets of apparatus in use are required at
about half the deliveries.
As the number of confinements in hospital tends to increase rather than
diminish, the attendances at the ante-natal and post-natal clinics, which in
Ilford cater solely for hospital cases, has increased, and in fact extra clinics
have been opened this year at Elmbridge Road and Mayesbrook. Every
prospective mother now has her blood tested for the "Rhesus-factor"
grouping in addition to the other tests, an essential link in the saving of
child life. Cases confined at home have ante-natal and post-natal care from
their private doctors and midwives.
Attendances at the Infant Welfare Centres have shown a further decline
from 49,444 to 43,668, again probably due to the decline in the birth rate
and the increased facility with which mothers may attend their own doctors
under the National Health Service Act scheme. In order to meet the need
of the new estate at Grange Hill, an Infant Welfare Centre has now been
opened in Elmbridge Road on Tuesday afternoons. In this connection I am
pleased to state that work has now commenced on the Combined Treatment
Centre in Manford Way, which is to take the place of the temporary
Elmbridge Road Clinic.
The domestic help service showed considerable expansion during the
year, the number employed rising to 150 as compared with 108 the previous
year, and the number of individuals supplied rising from 651 to 808. The
extent to which this service can expand is limited only by finance and the
number of domestic helps available.
The Nurseries and Child Minders Regulation Act, 1948, was implemented
and at the end of the year 5 Child-minders were registered and
inspected regularly.
The services of the 4 Day Nurseries continue to be greatly in demand
by the public as evinced by the waiting lists which varied from 42 to 186
for the 45 to 50 places available in each nursery. A strict scheme of priority
is in force, and each case has to be considered by a special sub-committee
of the Health Area Sub-Committee. This year the Nursery in Winding Way
was closed and the children transferred to a new building in Stevens Road.
It is hoped that an early start will be made on a new nursery in Goodmayes
Lane to replace the present one in Green Lane.
Sick room appliances, such as invalid chairs, mattresses and the like,
were supplied to 5 individuals during the year. Recuperative holidays were
provided for 7 children and nursing and expectant mothers, and for 37 other
adults, on receipt of a certificate from their doctors that they needed it, and
were not requiring medical and nursing attention. (Where such attention is
required, convalescence must be supplied by the Regional Hospital Board.)
A fee is payable in respect of both these services.
With regard to the Maternity Hospital, Wilnett Lodge, and the Isolation
Hospital, the period of nine months, during which the Borough Council
carried on administration on an agency basis, ended in 1949, and the hospitals
are now entirely under the control of Hospital Management Committee
Group 12. An effective liaison, however, is still maintained with the Isolation
Hospital, as is essential for the effective control of infectious disease.
After a further period of a year of functioning of the National Health
Service Act, 1946, it has become possible to consider its working. It has
benefited the community in many ways, but in spite of its manifest
advantages, in at least three aspects of its relationship with local Authorities,
there has been considerable heart-searching. I refer, firstly, to the relationship
of the larger Municipal Boroughs to the County Councils, who have
been given much of the responsibilities formerly enjoyed by the boroughs,
and many think unnecessarily so. Secondly, the division of the Maternity