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milk. There is a greyness, tinged with blue, on his face; the respirations
are hurried, he pants, and the alae nasi move out and in. There
is dullness on percussion here and there at the back of the lungs—
broncho-pneumonia. A letter is written to the Matron at the Babies'
Home and away the child goes. Should our cots be full, Mr. Cornish,
Clerk to the Guardians, and Dr. Wiggins, of the Greenwich and
Deptford Hospital, stand by us.
In 1922, the Day Nursery building, run in conjunction with the
Babies' Sick Home, was given over to be used as a home for the staff
at the Sick Home. This was necessary, as the extension of the Sick
Home encroached upon the nurses' rooms. A room was kept to be used
as a day nursery, but seemingly the number of applicants has gone
down. 1 trust that the Day Nursery will be resuscitated and that the
necessary financial backing will be forthcoming to help the Directors
on the Sick Home Committee who have done so admirably and so much
for the Borough. Where a husband was out of work, it was no
uncommon thing for the mother to do a day's charing and leave the
baby at the Day Nursery. Has employment improved to such an
extent that the need for the Day Nursery has disappeared ? No.
Perhaps more toddlers are now attending the Rachael McMillan
Memorial Open Air Day Nursery School, so diminishing the need for
the Day Nursery. This subject needs a little more thought.
(2) Many people attend the general hospitals. Of these, the Miller
Hospital, situated in Greenwich, is a great boon to our people. It is
equipped and prepared to treat any condition at any time.
Some go to Guy's, King's College Hospital, St. Thomas's, the
Ophthalmic and Sick Children's Hospitals and St. John's Hospital,
Lewisham. The Greenwich and Deptford Hospital receives many of
our sick poor including some suffering from tuberculosis. The Clerk
to the Guardians is one of the friends of the public health in Deptford.
His unfailing courtesy and sympathy stamp him as a true friend to the
sick poor. Individual Guardians, too, such as the Mayoress, Mrs.
Councillor Tiffen and Mrs. Drapper, J.P., Chairman of the Health
Committee, have only to be appealed to to render yeoman service. Not
every mother can find fifteen shillings a week to pay for a change at some
seaside home. The Guardians have repeatedly sent away some overwrought
mothers, threatened with tuberculosis, to a convalescent home,
what time the children are well cared for at the Guardians' Home,
Sidcup.