[Report 1957] / Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council.

  • North Riding of Yorkshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/78 (page 14)
    Use of voluntary organisations. In genera], the local health authority uses voluntary organisations where such bodies can do the work satisfactorily and with less formality than officers of the Council ; for example, for the care of the unmarried mothers and the adoption of children, the County Council makes grants to various Diocesan bodies who provide after-care workers and make arrangements in connection with admissions to hostels and allied matters. The payments for the use of the hostels are now generally made on a customer basis. The County Council has also used the Scarborough Council for Social Service in connection with tuberculosis after-care and still had contractual arrangements with the St. John Ambulance Brigade for the provision of ambulance services in two areas. CARE OF MOTHERS AMD BABIES. Last year a fairly full summary of the unfortunate position as regards the division of the functions relating to maternal and child care appeared in this report and a careful plea was made for a system of notification of pregnancy, similar to that which worked well during the war years because of the special issues of foods to pregnant women. There are still women who do not book midwives in time for adequate ante-natal care and who only attempt to secure dental treatment when the baby is 9 or 10 months old. The added costs of any scheme of notification of pregnancy and routine follow-up by midwives would be small; there will probably be some additional expenditure on home helps but che gross hospital costs would be cut and the lives of many women who do not appreciate the hazards of unsupervised pregnancy would be saved. Some hospitals have medical staff who are much more helpful than others in sending copies of relevant letters which indicate the need for special nursing procedures, after-care, or special educational treatment. At 91 places in the Riding, child welfare sessions are held as compared with 89 in 1956, 91 in 1955 and 55 in 1947. In 24 out of the 91 centres, ante-natal patients are also examined. The total number of attendances at infant welfare centres remains relatively stationary, the total attendances at infant welfare centres in the administrative county in 1957 being 61,749 as compared with 60,397 in 1956, and 61,391 in 1955. As regards the care of premature infants the provision of certain equipment on loan continues ; two more nurses have been given a special course of training for this purpose. Three new centres were opened during the year at Sleights, Colburn and Catterick Camp, and one ceased to function at Hawnby owing to decreased attendances. The average annual attendance per county administered centre is 679 the same as in the previous year. The average number per session attend¬ ing was 27 as against 26 in 1956. The following table gives numerical details of the clinics held, the persons who attended and the attendances for the year 1957.