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In 8 of the 555 live births In their ownhhomes the midwife acted as maternity nurse.
One case was attended by the family doctor only, no midwife being present at this birth.
Medical Aid was summoned in 187 cases. In 139 of these help was required for the
mother only, in 43 help was required for the baby only, and in the remaining 5 cases help
was summoned on account of both mother and baby.
SECTION 24: HEAETH VISITING.
The establishment for Health Visitors engaged on Maternity and Child Welfare work is
22. This is In addition to the Superintendent Nursing Officer, her Deputy and an establishment
of 18 School Nurses.
The Health Visiting/School Nursing staff at the end of the year was as follows:-
(a) Superintendent Nursing Officer and Deputy Superintendent Nursing Officer.
(b) 19 Health Visitors employed on Joint Health Visiting/School Nursing duties.
(c) 9 School Nurses employed solely on School Nursing duties.
(d) 1 Health Visitor employed by the South West Ham Health Society.
(e) 4 Health Visitors employed on Tuberculosis work.
There are now no health visitors employed solely on Maternity and Child Welfare work.
A further step has thus been taken towards making the health visitor the family visitor.
All eligible school nurses were given an opportunity to take the health visitors
training, but there are still 9 school nurses who are not health visitors. As these retire,
it is intended to replace them with health visitors who will undertake combined duties. In
the meantime, in order to maintain the balance between the services, some of the school
nurses undertake in the Maternity and Child Welfare Centres certain duties, such as the
weighing of babies, for which a trained health visitor is not required. During the year
student health visitors have been trained under the Council's sponsored scheme, and with the
exception of the administrative staff and two health visitors, all the qualified health
visitors now employed have been trained under this scheme. Vacancies in the
establishment have been filled solely from this source, and there has been no response to
advertisements for qualified health visitors.
A number of the health visitors have now been employed in West Ham for more than 2
years. Consequently, their contract with the Local Authority has expired, and they are free
to leave the area. Some of them have, in fact, left, although several of the senior health
visitors have now been in West Ham for over 4 years. Although the sponsored scheme has been
invaluable in maintaining the service (it would Indeed have been impossible to maintain it
without some such scheme), it has not quite succeeded in keeping the establishment at full
strength.
The home visits paid by the health visitors during the past year are set out below:-
First Visits Total Visits
To expectant mothers 1,431 2,512
To children under 1 year 2,990 16,508
To children 1-2 years - 7,413
To children 2-5 years - 16,205
Special Visits - 1,209
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