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(4) Negligence of the patient or her friends to adopt or carry
out medical advice offered to them.—A municipal midwife has been
appointed to co-ordinate all ante-natal activities, and her work,
which includes the issue of sterilised maternity outfits, together
with the talks and lectures which are being introduced at the AnteNatal
Clinics will, it is hoped, remove this difficulty as time goes
on, and the increased use of the King's Home for Nurses for
maternity nursing, and of midwives as maternity nurses in certain
cases should assist in eliminating the "Handywoman." The
Council, by paying the fees of midwives caring for necessitous
mothers, also assists in that direction.
It will thus be realised that the Council has now put into
operation a scheme which covers all the points raised in the circulars
of the Ministry, except that, at the present time, it is impracticable
to arrange for general practitioners to attend the clinics.
The Council will remember that the London County Council
has agreed, in the Northwold Road Clearance Scheme, to build a
Maternity and Child Welfare Centre, to be leased to the Borough
Council, and has been requested to consider the provision of similar
accommodation when dealing with Morning Lane and Warburton
Square Areas. The Maternity and Child Welfare Committee is
also keenly interested in the possibility of erecting centres when
areas are cleared by the Borough Council, and the Housing Committee
has the matter under consideration in connexion with the
clearance of Nisbet Street Area. The Maternity and Child
Welfare Committee has resolved to bring the matter up for
discussion as opportunity arises in the future, since hired premises
are obviously unsatisfactory as compared with premises reserved
entirely for Maternity and Child Welfare work.
The cost of the Maternity and Child Welfare Service for the
coming financial year amounts to a rate of 2.22d., excluding the
amount of the " Block Grant " received from Government sources
in lieu of the former percentage grant of the Ministry of Health.
The last percentage grant from the Ministry of Health was received
in the financial year 1929/30, and amounted to £5,148, and
an equal amount must be included in the present contribution to
the Council so that the actual local expenditure for Maternity and
Child Welfare is the equivalent of a rate of 1.34 pence.
Tuberculosis.
The number of primary notifications of Pulmonary Tuberculosis
for the year is 256. The total number of primary notifications of
Tuberculosis, pulmonary and non-pulmonary, number 299, and this
figure is the lowest ever recorded. The deaths from Tuberculosis
number 184.