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17
was vacated, and a communicating door was made in the party
wall. The two ground-floor rooms at No. 71 were made into
waiting-rooms, and two new chiropodist's cubicles were provided
in the vacated waiting-room at No. 69.
The expansion in the premises has materially assisted in the
work of the Clinic.
Renewed acknowledgment must be made of the excellent work
of the staff.
Women 's Clinic.—MissM.Basdeu, M.D., F.R.C.S., F.C.O.G.,
kindly reports as follows: —
"The Women's Clinic, judging from the numbers attending
it, continues to meet a definite need. We have been glad to welcome
104 new patients during the year, and the average attendance has
been 17.5 per session.
"Contraceptive cases form only a very small proportion of
those attending, and the Clinic is becoming mainly a gynaecological
one. Four oases desiring contraceptive advice have attended
during the year, but only two could be treated because there was
no medical justification in the other oases for using contraceptive
methods. It is evidently not quite understood by some doctors and
patients that this Clinio, being administered under the conditions
laid down by the Ministry of Health, is allowed to give contraceptive
advice only where pregnancy would be detrimental to the
patient's health, and that the law does not allow social and
economic difficulties to be taken into consideration.
"Only about 15 patients were sent with doctors' letters. It
is always a pleasure to co-operate with the patient's own doctor,
and to give any help possible, and all letters sent by doctors are
replied to.
"Twenty-eight patients were referred to Hospital, nearly all
to the South London Hospital for Women, and I have operated on
many patients from the Clinic at that Hospital during the year.
I think they have felt it an advantage to be able to remain under
the care of the Medical Officer of the Clinic, but it would be still
better if this could be done without going so far from their homes,
and it suggests the need for a women's hospital, possibly in the form
of an extension of the new Maternity Hospital.
"All are grateful for the Council's recent decision to supply
medicine at the Clinic at cost price, and also to arrange for certain
necessary apparatus to be obtainable at cost price. This has
done much to add to the popularity of the Clinio, but I still have to
refer patients to Hospital when they require such things as surgical
belts, for the Clinic is not recognised by the H.S.A. or allied