View report page

26
a midwifery service was therefore imperative, and preliminary
steps were being taken by the Committee, which it is expected
will result in the establishment at an early date of a Maternity
Home and Ante-Natal Clinic, as well as an adequate and
efficient district midwifery service for the Borough.
Proposals were also under consideration at the end of the
year for dental treatment for expectant and nursing mothers.
It is expected that this important and necessary addition to the
Council's Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme will be provided
in due course.
The Council's scheme also includes provision for the
hospital treatment of children attending the various centres
comprised in the Council's Maternity and Child Welfare
Scheme. The present arrangements are with the Victoria
Children's Hospital, Chelsea, who admit children either as
in or out-patients on the order of the Medical Officer of Health,
or the Medical Officer in charge of the Clinic. There is no
contract for this service with the hospital. The Council give
a donation to the funds of the hospital, and, in return, the
hospital places facilities at the disposal of the Council for the
admission of children patients attending the Maternity Centres
in the Borough. Much benefit has already resulted from the
use made of this hospital, and having regard to the advantages
to the Council's scheme of being able to utilise the services of
an easily accessible and well-known children's hospital, it may
be desirable to extend the sphere of its usefulness by a more
defined relationship than at present exists between the hospital
and the Council, in considering the fuller development in this
direction of their Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme.
Health Visitors.
The work carried out during the year by the Council's
Health Visiting Staff was, on the whole, satisfactory, and will
be found summarised below. Many factors contributed to interfere
with the fuller development and efficiency of the work. In
the first place, it was not until after the return of the Medical
Officer of Health from Military Service at the end of March
that the Council's Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme, as
outlined in the Local Government Board's memorandum, began
to take shape. Accident and sickness amongst the Health
Visiting Staff also interfered, to some extent, with the work,
and we were, furthermore, unfortunate in losing the services of
Miss Burnett and Miss Ware, who accepted more lucrative
appointments in another Metropolitan Borough, and of Miss
Ross Brown, who resigned her appointment for private reasons.
The vacancies created were, of course, quickly filled up, but
it cannot be expected that newly-appointed officers, until they
have become acquainted with their districts, can be as efficient