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105
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
Nurses.
Arrangements have been made with various nursing associations
in the Borough to attend cases of ophthalmia neonatorum,
measles, whooping-cough, diarrhœa, and pneumonia following
influenza, measles or whooping-cough, when and as
requested by the Medical Officer of Health at a fee of 1/3 per
visit. 2,635 such visits were paid during the year.
Clapham is served by the South London District Nursing
Association; Putney and Roehampton by the nurses appointed
by the Parochial Nursing Associations; and Streatham, Tooting,
Wandsworth, and Balham, by Ranyard Nurses, of whom there
are 13 working in the Borough. The northern district of
Streatham is served by the Brixton Nursing Association.
Consultation and Treatment Centres.
As no treatment is given at the various Infant Welfare
Centres, children are sent to suitable hospitals or to private
doctors. The principal diseases found were affections of the
eyes, ears, throat or skin, advanced cases of rickets and the like.
Maternity Homes.
There are 34 private maternity homes in the Borough, eight
of which are carried on by practising midwives.
Wandsworth Borough Memorial Maternity Home.
During the year 341 births occurred in the Borough Memorial
Maternity Home, and the following table, copy of which was
forwarded to the Ministry of Health early in the current year,
shows in detail these cases, the deaths of infants and mothers,
the various complications that occurred and the number of times
it was necessary for the Matron to call in medical assistance,
either for the mother or child.
It is most satisfactory that only two deaths of mothers
occurred, one of which was due to advanced cardiac disease and
the other to severe post-partum hæmorrhage.