[Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Worcestershire / County of Worcester County Council.

  • Worcestershire (England). County Council.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Worcestershire / County of Worcester County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Mrs. Dovey has been given an area for combined work (Health Visiting and. Schools) in Stourbridge. This means that a further advance has been made towards the policy of combined work over the whole of the County, which gives continuity of contact with the child from the age of 14 days to school leaving age. Miss Richards was appointed on the 1st September 1946 for tuberculosis work. Miss E. Lyons resigned and left in December in order to take up work for S.S.A.F.A. with the B.A.O.R. in the Ruhr. Three students, (two for the County, and one for the City) commenced the Health Visitors Course with Birmingham Public Health Department, in conjunction with Birmingham University, on 1st September and are well reported on by Tutors. The scheme whereby all the students in the Course get experience of work outside the City of Birmingham has been extended and 8 students each worked in the Stourbridge area for 2 days per week for 8 weeks, the programme being arranged by Dr. S. Walker. The students appreciate the wider field thus open to them. In the Rural parts of the County about 50 district nurses undertake part time Health Visiting duties ; these part-time duties provide the equivalent of 12 whole-time Health Visitors or School Nurses. Mother and Baby Homes. The Worcester Diocesan Moral Welfare Association, in addition to providing a trained staff of outside workers, maintained two Homes for unmarried mothers and their children, the County Council making financial grants in aid of this work. Greenhill Hostel, Kidderminster. As previously mentioned, the general maternity work under¬ taken during the war ceased in June 1946, the Hostel then reverting to its normal functions as an ante and post-natal Hostel for unmarried girls with nursery accommodation for their babies. Difficulties at once arose in connection with the staff required to attend the confinements in the Hostel. The number of con¬ finements was relatively small and the midwives engaged would have comparatively little midwifery work ; further it would have been difficult and costly to maintain the necessary staff. The County Council (through the Public Assistance and Administrative Health Committees) undertook to admit patients to their Maternity Homes for the actual period of confinement, and the arrangement appears to be working well. The premises will accommodate at least twelve ante or post¬ natal mothers and twenty-four babies. Staff difficulties have I know been acute but progress is being made on sound lines. St. Catherines, Malvern Link. This Home is provided for post-natal unmarried mothers and their babies; 18 mothers can be accommodated.