The Health Services
1944-05 1944 1940s 23 pages 5 (3) The Maternity and Child Welfare Service. The Notification of Births Act, 1907, which encouraged some local authorities to appoint health visitors, was followed only in 1915 by the Notification of Births (Extension) Act, empowering local authorities to attend to t...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
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London : C. W. Publishing Ltd.
May 1944
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/C053927A-D30B-4B03-8BF3-47B7567D177A http://hdl.handle.net/10796/242CE469-070F-4B1B-8571-344482443B0D |
| Summary: | 1944-05
1944
1940s
23 pages
5 (3) The Maternity and Child Welfare Service. The Notification of Births Act, 1907, which encouraged some local authorities to appoint health visitors, was followed only in 1915 by the Notification of Births (Extension) Act, empowering local authorities to attend to the health of expectant and nursing mothers and of children under five. It also provided for the employment of health visitors and the establishment of infant welfare centres throughout the country. The Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918, the Midwives Act, 1936, and the Maternity Services (Scotland) Act, 1937, are the basis of the present service. Ante-natal and post-natal clinics for mothers, an extended system of home visiting, a domiciliary midwifery service, maternity and convalescent homes, obstetric advice, milk and food, and infant welfare centres — all these form part of a comprehensive maternity service ; but not all these facilities are available in all areas. Here, too, some of the legislation is permissive, and there are great variations in quality and quantity. In 1935-34 the approximate average expenditure of eighty county boroughs on maternity and child welfare was 1/4 per head, but the highest was 3/2 and the lowest 6d. per head. Voluntary bodies such as district nursing associations and hospitals are doing good work in this field and in many instances they receive financial support from local authorities for this purpose. III.— THE CURATIVE SERVICES. The health services of Britain mostly come under this heading, and consist of a variety of local and national, public, voluntary and private agencies — hospitals, clinics, the National Health Insurance scheme, and private practice. (I) The Hospitals : (a) Voluntary. The Voluntary Hospitals were originally built and maintained exclusively from charitable funds for poor patients. They have a great tradition of service, and the best of them have always been and are still the seats of medical teaching and research. Their income is now derived to a great extent from hospital contributory schemes, from contributions from local authorities for services rendered, and from patients' payments. Despite all efforts to increase charitable income by means of flag days and other public appeals, it has not been able to keep up with the increased financial demands of modern medicine with its elaborate equipment and complex methods of treatment. In 1938 42.4 per cent. of the income of London Voluntary hospitals came from non-charitable sources, and for the provinces the percentage was even higher.
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |