Report on maternity insurance
1927 1927 1920s 16 pages 6 It will be seen that the provision for the care of mother and child by the Local Authority is, in theory, fairly satisfactory, but there is still much improvement to be desired. No common standard appears to exist. In some cases the centres are efficient and well-organis...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
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London : Co-operative Printing Society Ltd.
1927
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/D46F5096-F540-4817-8644-1102F3AD5862 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/B26F5EE4-10A4-4FAA-9D32-6095136012FD |
| Summary: | 1927
1927
1920s
16 pages
6 It will be seen that the provision for the care of mother and child by the Local Authority is, in theory, fairly satisfactory, but there is still much improvement to be desired. No common standard appears to exist. In some cases the centres are efficient and well-organised ; the clinics are attended by first-rate doctors and nurses with a school for mothers attached, while home-visiting thoroughly supplements the work for those unable to attend the centres. In other cases, this provision is very inadequate, and there is to some extent a dual method of organisation, since side by side with the schemes instituted by the Local Authorities there exist a considerable number of voluntary Welfare Centres and Clinics. Some of these are excellent and experimental, but the inefficiency of the supply in one district is none the less because another is over-served. Provision for the education of mothers and for propaganda is often insufficient, the supply of Midwives inadequate, while the competent medical attendance essential to a safe midwifery service cannot always be obtained.† Apart from the cases which can be nursed in their own home there are, however, those whose own home conditions, or the seriousness of their case, are such that they should be taken into the lying-in wards or beds in institutions. These beds are to be found either in the voluntary hospitals or the Poor Law Infirmaries. Accommodation in the hospitals is seriously inadequate. The Voluntary Hospitals Commission reported that the additional beds needed for all purposes in England and Wales, excluding London, were 8,000, or an increase of 22 per cent., and an addition in London of 2,088 beds.‡ The report does not differentiate as to maternity beds, but its observations were taken as covering these. In some areas it appears that there are beds in Poor Law Infirmaries which might be transferred to Local Authorities, and so reduce the pressure, but there is little co-operation between the two forms of institution and prejudice on the part of the workers against entering the Poor Law Infirmaries still naturally persists. It will be observed that these social services, apart from the voluntary hospitals, are provided by contributions from the State or the ratepayers, and that they apply to all mothers who choose to avail themselves of them, and carry with them no money grant to the mother. Any assistance other than advice or treatment is given, not in money, but in kind. † See Report of Dr. Janet Campbell, page 30. ‡ See Report of the Voluntary Hospital Commission, 1925, pp. 7-11.
292/824/1/114 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |