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145
Maternity and Child Welfare.—
(a) The Council should consider
the payment of compensation to
midwives when patients who attend
the ante-natal clinic on the
advice of the midwife are subsequently
admitted to the Maternity
Hospital for confinement on
the recommendation of the Medical
Officer of the Clinic.
(b) Attention is drawn to the
importance of post-natal examination
for all women recently confined,
and every effort should be
made to persuade such women to
take advantage of the facilities
provided for this purpose.
(c) The Council should consider
the desirability of arranging that
a specific area within the Borough
should be allocated to the voluntary
organisations for clinic purposes
and home visiting.
(d) There appears to be a need
for more sessions attended by a
doctor at the Infant Welfare
Centres.
(e) Some re-organisation and
adjustment of the work of the
Health Visiting Staff could be
effected with advantage. The
Minister is advised that an undue
proportion of the time of the
Health Visitors is devoted to
clerical work.
(a) The Council have already decided
that compensation shall be
fixed at 10/- per case lost to the
midwife.
(b) A post-natal clinic has been
in operation for some time at
Thorpe Coombe, and mothers are
now beginning to attend fairly
well. The Chairman of the Walthamstow
District Nursing Association
has been asked to request
the Matron and Staff of the Association
to refer all their midwives'
cases to the Clinic at Low Hall
Lane.
All midwives practising in the area
have been similarly circularised.
The Health Visiting Staff has
been asked to emphasise the importance
of post-natal examination
at their first visit. If the numbers
of post-natal cases attending at
Low Hall Lane become sufficient,
it may be necessary to institute a
special clinic.
(c) The Council have given very
careful consideration to this suggestion,
but they are of the
opinion that it would not be desirable
to allocate a specific area
within the Borough to voluntary
organisations for clinic purposes
and home visiting.
(d) The number of sessions attended
by a doctor have been increased
to the number suggested
by the Ministry's Inspector.
(e) Pending the time when all
the nursing staff will be carrying
out combined health visiting and
school nursing duties, some anomalies
must exist. The re-organisation
and adjustment suggested
by the Ministry's Inspector have
already been carried out. The
present clerical staff is not sufficient
to undertake any of the
clerical work of the Health Visitors,
but the Council are going
into the question of engaging additional
clerical assistance generally
for the Public Health Department.