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MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH SERVICES
INTRODUCTION
The Maternity and Child Welfare and School Health Services have now been
functioning as one section for two years, but they are not yet fully integrated. On
the administrative side a certain amount of re-organisation has been possible but
progress is impeded by the size and nature of the present premises. The staff are
looking forward to moving into the new purpose-built premises next year. The move
will bring us nearer our colleagues in the Children's, Welfare and Education departments
and should make consultation easier.
It has not yet been possible to allocate duties in both parts of the service
to all medioal officers. The re-distribution of work would have repercussions on the
arrangement of the doctor's work in schools, which we are at present discussing with
the Head Teachers. We are also discussing with them certain matters which they have
raised and certain suggestions which we wish to put forward in order to make School
Health Service more effective.
We were greatly saddened in July by the sudden death of Mr. C.J. Scott our Ear,
Nose and Throat Consultant, and by the death after an illness, of Lady Ewing who had
given us so much help in initiating our audiology scheme and in training our health
visitors in screening tests for hearing in young children. Any future developments
in audiology will owe much to the foundations laid by Lady Ewing and Mr. Scott.
We are very grateful to the Royal Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, Gray's Inn Road,
for allowing Miss Bickerton to act as temporary director of our audiology clinic, and
to Professor Sir Alexander Ewing for arranging for Dr. Ian Taylor of the Department for
the Education of the Deaf, Manchester University, to continue the training of health
visitors.
We were saddened also on hearing that Miss Edith Prime, Health Visitor to the
South-West Ham Health Society, had been compelled to retire through illness. Miss
Prime has given many years of devoted service to the mothers and children of West Ham
who attended the Maternity and Child Welfare Centre in the little house in Avenons Road.
She always maintained close links with the Health Department and was ready to help in
time of need; we shall all miss her.
The Council's health visitors had for many years worked with Miss Prime at the
Avenons Road Centre and they continued to run the Centre during Miss Prime's illness,
until her retirement. The Centre was closed on 20th July and the mothers and
children were offered similar facilities at the Council's Maybury Road and Eldon Road
clinics. The South-West Ham Health Society still functions and will surely find
other ways of contributing to the health of the community.
The clinic premises at Eldon Road and at Balaam Street are much too small for
the purposes for which they are used, though the staff make great efforts to mitigate
the inconvenience caused to mothers and children. New buildings for these clinics have
been included in the Council's "Development Plan" and meantime we look forward to the
new Maternity and Child Welfare and School Health Service Centre in West Ham Lane.
The plans, which have been agreed by the Council, include provision for many of the
specialist services. The plans for all three clinics will include facilities for both
the Maternity and Child Welfare and School Health Service clinics, thus furthering
the progress towards a unified Child Health Service.
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