[Report 1923] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council.

  • Fife (Scotland). County Council.
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1923] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/69 (page 28)
    Reports summarising the work of each health-visitor during the year have been made to the District Committees and the Board of Health. Midwives Act, 1915. The annual report on the administration of the Midwives Act within the District of the four landward super- vising authorities has been made, copies being furnished to the Central Midwives Board. There has during the year been an improvement in the observation by midwives of the Rules of the Board. In Dunfermline District, two mid wives were reported to the Board for sundry breaches of the Regulations, of whom one is on probation with a view to her name being removed from the Roll if failure to observe the Rules is continued ; the other was the only midwife in a wide and sparsely populated district and in these circumstances no action was taken. No breach of the Rules came to knowledge in Kirkcaldy District warranting special notice and like conditions obtained in the Districts of Cupar and St Andrew's where lying-in is usually under the supervision of a medical practitioner. Reference was made in the Annual Report for 1922 to the need for the better supervision of “ handy-women ” in view of what is considered the defective terms of the Midwives Act, 1915, in this respect: it is interesting to note, that a considerable weight of opinion has been brought to bear on the question of the amendment of the Act on the lines suggested. Early in the year inquiry was made into the conduct of a medical practitioner regarding two confinements where unqualified women were in attendance and appeared to have an undesirable amount of liberty and control without reasonable medical supervision. The facts, as ascertained, were intimated to the Procurator-Fiscal who reported that the provisions of the Act on emergencies covered the circumstances of one case and the words “ under the direction of a registered medical practitioner ” (Section 1 (2)) the other.