View report page

Nurseries and Child Minders Regulation Act, 1948.
Under this Act any person who receives into her home for
reward three or more children under the age of five years to be
looked after for the day or a substantial part of the day, and premises,
other than those wholly or mainly used as a private dwelling,
are required to be registered with the Local Health Authority.
At the end of the year the number of premises and child minders
in the Borough registered with the County Council were:—
Premises No. of Children
Premises 1 15
Child Minders 3 9
The Daily Guardian scheme in operation in the Borough has
been continued and at the end of the year one guardian was registered
with and subsidised financially by the County Council.
Health Visiting
For some time it has been felt that there is a need for a greater
co-operation between general practitioners and health visitors. The
Seneral practitioner comes into contact with the midwife and the
home nurse in the course of his work, but he does not normally meet
the health visitor.
At the Annual Representative Meeting of the British Medical
Association in 1953, the following resolution was passed:—
"That the Association welcomes health visitors working under
the guidance of general practitioners as a means by which such
Practitioners may increase the help they can give to their patients,
and that the Council be requested to conduct ways whereby the
help given by health visitors to general practitioners may be increased."
It is difficult to describe in a few words the work which the
health visitor performs. In addition to the duties she carries out
appertaining to the care of expectant mothers and young children,
she advises the family generally on a host of social and medical
Problems.
To increase the co-operation between general practitioners and
health visitors in the Borough, two meetings were held to which
all general practitioners were invited. The main object of these
meetings, which were well attended was to enable the general practitioners
to meet the health visitors and get to know them. Each
Seneral practitioner was given a list of roads covered by each
health visitor and of the clinics which she attended. Times at which
the health visitor could be contacted by telephone were also given,
and general practitioners were asked to state the most suitable hours
for health visitors to get in touch with them.
Various problems affecting the Local Health Authority were
discussed and it is felt that these meetings were well worth while.
They will be repeated from time to time.
55