[Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Middlesex County Council.

  • Middlesex (England). County Council. n 99020326.
Date:
1960
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Middlesex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at that site. In the light of attendances a slight modification was made and a revised programme put into operation on the 3rd October, i960. In one or two instances two sites are visited during one session. The driver carries out the sale of welfare foods, i.e., dried milk, orange juice, &c., from the towing vehicle at each session. Other welfare foods are sold from the unit itself. Apart from minor teething troubles, the vehicle has been on the road continually, except for one occasion when repairs had to be carried out. A rota of doctors attend the clinic in addi¬ tion to the clinic nurse and the health visitor from the parent clinic. The parking of the unit has presented little difficulty except on odd occasions, when the site has been occupied by another vehicle. Two mornings a week are devoted to the maintenance of the towing vehicle and the unit itself. A central spot in the area in the grounds of Hanworth Park House, which is a Welfare Home, is by courtesy of the Welfare Department, used for night parking of the unit and garaging of the towing vehicle. This has proved very satisfactory. The total attendances for the first half year to the end of December, i960, was 4,009, an average of 17*35 per session. The mobile clinic has proved a very useful supplement to the permanent clinics and has been greatly praised and appreciated by the mothers who use it.” The total number of attendances at ante-natal clinics during the year was only very slightly above that of 1959. The number of sessions held increased by 45 due mainly to the ante-natal sessions in Northolt Grange clinic. Some of these were concurrent with post-natal examination sessions. The number of live births in i960 increased by about 2,500 over that of the previous year, but this was not reflected in a proportional increase in atten¬ dances of children under one year at infant welfare sessions. This number dropped a little. It is possible that more mothers are visiting their family doctors with their young children, particularly where their doctors are carrying out their immunisation programmes. Welfare Foods.—The County Council has continued to be responsible for the distribution of welfare foods, that is national dried milk, orange juice and cod liver oil for children and vitamin tablets and orange juice for expectant mothers. In addition to the above mentioned welfare foods obtained under government arrangements, the County Council also supplies on sale certain proprietary baby foods, &c., on the recommendation of a medical officer. There has not been any noticeable increase in the use of the extended arrange¬ ment whereby general practitioners holding their own infant welfare clinics may send their mothers to the nearest county council clinic to obtain foods stocked there at welfare prices. Day Nurseries.—All the day nurseries remained open in i960, and in addition, approval was given to an increase of ten places from 30 to 40 at Park Road, Ashford, which was originally scheduled for 50 places. This was to meet an increasing demand for admission to this day nursery which serves a wide area. In November a proposal was made to replace the present day nursery at Feltham, which will need to be moved owing to redevelopment of the district,