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(2) Consultant Surgeon for services in connection with complicated
midwifery in the homes, either before, during
or after confinement. (At present the Council has a
rota of three Surgeons who may be called to the homes
for consultation in regard to cases of puerperal sepsis
only).
(3) Consultant Surgeon to attend at the Consultative Antenatal
and Post-natal Sessions which could be established
at one or more of the Council's Maternity and Child
Welfare Centres.
VI "With regard to the auxiliary maternity services, the Minister
appreciates the extensive provision already made, buf
he suggests that the Council should consider the extension
of the Home Help Service to women who are medically
certified to need domestic assistance on account of illness
during pregnancy, and to those whose condition, in the
opinion of the medical attendant, renders such service
desirable after the fourteenth day of the puerperium."
I am of opinion that this extension might easily be established
with great benefit to the patient and to the scheme as a whole.
Application for this extension of the services of the Home Help
should be accompanied by the certificate of the doctor attending
the mother, each such case to be considered on its merits before
being granted.
Some of these suggestions have been previously considered
by the Council, but for good reasons have had to be deferred.
The passing of the Midwives Bill will, to a considerable degree,
affect your present scheme. Nevertheless, 1 am of opinion that
the above-mentioned extensions would add greatly to the value
of your present services. If it is desirable that the steps outlined
should be dealt with piecemeal, it only remains to decide to which
section you will give priority. My view is that proposal V is
paramount and could be established in conjunction with the
public Assistance Committee with comparatively little cost and
immediately.
Proposal 11 is one which I put before the Council in a report
issued to them in January, 1931 on "Hospital and Other Accommodation"
in regard to the Local Government Act, 1929. This
proposal, too, is of course one which is a matter primarily for the
Public Assistance Committee; it is the most costly, and would
Probably take longest to inaugurate, but should, in my view, be
fully considered in all its aspects while the other less expensive
commitments are being dealt with.
I o summarise the schemes outlined above, I submit for the
consideration of the Committee the following amendments or
additions to the present Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme:—
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