View report page

5.5.3 In all cases coming to the notice of the department in 19G8 it was possible by
persuasion to get the old people either to accept services which would enable them to
remain in their own homes or to go to hospital or to an old people's home. We report with
great relief that no applications to the Court were necessary.
NATIONAL ASSISTANCE ACT 1948, SECTION 50
5.6 Under this section the Council arranged for the burial of 117 bodies in 1967
and 89 in 1968 where no other suitable arrangement seemed likely to be made. The burials
cost respectively £2,239 3s. 3d and £1,694 14s. 4d of which £1,984 6s. 2d and
£1,539 16s. 8d respectively was recovered from relatives or the estates of the deceased
persons. Cases came to the notice of the Health Department from the following sources:-

5.7 The medical aspects of environmental health were taken care of with diligence
and enthusiasm by the Deputy Medical Officer of Health, Dr. N.P. Bhandari, under the
general direction of Dr.R. Duncan Dewar, Associate Medical Officer of Health.
Dr. Bhandari's work involves also the "vetting" of well over 2,500 applications each
year for preferential rehousing on medical grounds. The oversight of the work of the
public health inspectorate, the amount and complexity of which has been impressively
described in the previous pages, is the responsibility of Mr. R.N. Thomas, our Chief
Public Health Inspector. The universal respect he commands is based on sound knowledge,
good judgment and unceasing endeavour.
MIDWIFERY
6.1.1 The Registrar General's corrected figure of births of Camden children during
1967 and 1968 was lower, as is usual, than the actual number of birth notifications
received. This difference, representing 263 children in 1,968, is an indication of the
maternity services provided in Camden for girls, very often unmarried, who when
registering the births give their home addresses but come to London to have their babies
and very often to stay temporarily at one of the mother and baby homes in the Borough.
6.1.2 The Camden birth rate continued to fall throughout 1967 and 1968, and hospitals
were able to maintain the trend of accepting an increasingly large proportion of the
total confinements. Consequently, the number of planned home confinements has steadily
fallen and in 1968 was only 151, representing 4.6 per cent, of the total births. In 1967
there had been 234 home confinements (6.6 per cent, of the total births) as against
326 (8.5 per cent.) in 1966. In addition, three mothers in 1967 and six in 1968 who had
been booked for hospital confinement had their babies at home owing to premature
delivery.
6.1.3 These figures reflect the national decline in the birth rate and the change in the
pattern of the maternity services. Now more and more deliveries take place in hospital
and, where suitable, the mother and baby are discharged home on the second day to the
care of the general practitioner and the midwife. Planned early discharges, which are
arranged during pregnancy with the patient's agreement, are contributing towards the
fuller use of hospital maternity beds and are offering opportunity to an increasing number
of women to benefit from the advantages of technique and safety which the hospitals
have to offer.
6.1.4 Planned early discharges from hospitals showed a decrease in 1968 as opposed
to the fairly constant increase of recent years (1965 — 279; 1966 — 326; 1967— 435;
1968 — 354). This may also be due to the fall in the birth rate, since hospital beds are
not now in such great demand. There were a number of unplanned early discharges due to
still-births and infant deaths; others were cases where, although the homes were initially
assessed as being suitable for confinement, the mothers had to be admitted to hospital for
unpredictable obstetric reasons. Some mothers discharged themselves against medical
advice and follow-up care in these cases was provided by the domiciliary midwives.
28