London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
West Ham 1930
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for West Ham]
This page requires JavaScript
Systematic antenatal visiting is done by the Health Visitors;
advice is given to the expectant mothers regarding personal hygiene,
cleanliness of the home, and the general preparation for
confinement. Many expectant mothers are sent to the Antenatal
Clinics.
Special visits and enquiries are made into the causes of all
deaths up to 5 years of age, and into all cases of stillbirth.
Weekly visits are paid as long as necessary to all cases of Puerperal
Fever or Pyrexia, Ophthalmia Neonatorum, and Pemphigus
Neonatorum in order to see that the patient is receiving efficient
attention, and also that she is carrying out all instructions for her
own health or the health of the infant.
| First Visits. | Total Visits. | |
|---|---|---|
| (a) To expectant mothers. | 7674 | 26338 |
| (b) To children under 1 year of age. | 9226 | 70981 |
| (c) To children between the ages of 1 and 5 years. | 82796 | |
| †(d) Infant Life Protection visits. | 60 | 269 |
| †Special visits (Home Helps, etc.) | ... | 8283 |
| Total visits | ... | 188667 |
| †Visits by Municipal Health Visitors only. | ||
*By all Health Visitors is meant 12 full-time, fully-trained
Health Visitors employed by the Council, plus 40 Health Visitors
employed by Voluntary Associations in the Borough, viz. 36
Nurses employed by the Plaistow District Nurses' Homes as
Health Visitors, 2 by the South West Ham Health Society; and
one each by the Stratford Day Nursing Centre and by the Trinity
Mission Centre respectively. The Nurses employed by the three
last-named Associations do not undertake routine visiting, but visit
necessitous cases attending their Centres. Those Nurses in training
at the Plaistow District Nurses' Home undertake the routine
visiting of all infants attended at birth by that Association.
129 H