View report page

7
cases to Dr. Hill, and the latter of course sends a reply in each case
back to the midwife. In other cases Dr. Hill sends a letter to the
Greenwich and Deptford Hospital if in this splendid institution the
mother is going to be confined. Not many years will elapse before all
pregnant women will receive ante-natal care, and as soon as my
colleagues in general medical practice put their foot down and refuse
to book a case for a conlinement unless the lady agrees to ante-natal
care, so we will see a reduction in the regrettable difficulties which
crop up at times on the day of the confinement or during the lying-in
period. A sound and constructive ante-natal scheme throughout the
country will break the ranks of the puerperal fever and complex midwifery
foes ; make no mistake about that.
Respecting Ultra Violet Rays, we may take those cases first which
are sent by Dr. Donnelly for a course, at a cost of Is. per exposure, to
the Miller Hospital. These are selected non-pulmonary tuberculous
cases. There is a question to be settled yet as to whether Ultra Violet
light treatment is of much use in such tuberculous cases unless given in
association with open air and pure air treatment as, for example, at
Hayling Island. As regards Maternity and Child Welfare cases there
is not the slightest doubt but that this work has been a success. In
the body of this report as well as in previous reports, facts and figures
will be found which justify the small expenditure which this ameliorative
agency has effected. Under Dr. Hill's clinical supervision
Miss Holland has done well as Health Visitor in charge. Your
Maternity Committee decided recently that each Health Visitor should
be gradually initiated into the technique of this work, on the grounds
that it is always well to have ample qualified manipulators at hand.
This is purely a question of administr itij.i which Dr. Keith will be
able to arrange with Dr. Hill's assistance. Meanwhile, Miss Gibson
is a tower of strength and Miss Stowell will soon be quite expert. A
further point to be noted is that the Committee felt compelled to limit
patients to those coming through the child welfare clinics and who are
not on the school register. From time to time someone would send a
child of school age for a course of treatment, but this became embarrassing,
and as the County Council have no fund from which to
offer payment for school children treated at our Ultra Violet Ray
Centre, it was felt necessary, with regret, to limit the cases to those not
on the. school register. Sometimes I have sent cases from the Hales