[Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council.

  • Wiltshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the latter three months of the year, of the new Rule of the Central Midwives Board where¬ by it is obligatory for the midwife to use the notice of sending for medical aid in respect of each separate emergency arising in any case attended by her. Previously, in emergencies subsequent to the first, provided that the doctor called was still in attendance, the mid¬ wife was not bound to use the form, although requested to do so. Another of the new Rules of the Board restricts the laying out of the dead by mid¬ wives to those cases upon whom they are in attendance as midwife or maternity nurse at the time of death. It is evident from the total of fifteen notifications received during the year that midwives in the County already comparatively rarely undertake this work, and the practice will obviously be still more restricted in future years. Dr. Agnes Semple, as Inspector of Midwives and Executive Officer of the Wilts County Nursing Association, visits all midwives newly practising in the County area. She also makes visits, from time to time, to Honorary Secretaries of local Nursing Associations and their midwives to give advice and help when local difficulties arise. The Assistant Inspectors of Midwives pay regular, usually quarterly, visits to the midwives in their respective areas. No instances of gross negligence, or other serious matters, occurred during last year and it was unnecessary to report any midwife to the Central Midwives Board. Naturally many minor points arose, and experience has proved that midwives generally regard the visits of their Inspectors as an opportunity for helpful discussion of difficulties, many of which are resolved in this way. The following are the statistics for 1934 in regard to the working of Section 14 of the Midwives Act, 1918, under which doctors are entitled to claim from the County Council fees for services performed in cases to which they have been called by midwives these fees being recoverable from the patient according to her means. The corresponding figures for 1933 are given in brackets Number of cases in which certified midwives sent for medical aid.. 1048 (912) Number of cases in which doctors claimed fees from the County Council 649 (566) Percentage of such cases in which doctors claimed fees from the County Council . . . . . . . . . 61.93 (62.06) Amount of doctors' fees paid by the County Council .£1,138 (£993) Amount recovered from the patients . £330 (£283) Balance not recovered ..... . . . . . . . £308 (£710) (The financial details given above refer to the respective financial years, and not to the calendar years as in the case of the other statistics). The above figures show that 29 per cent, of the total sum paid to doctors was refunded, compared with 28.5 per cent, in 1933, 32 per cent in 1932, 40 per cent, in 1931, and 42 per cent, in 1930. In June, 1934, two district midwives were appointed by the Caine and Caine Country District Nursing Associations, the latter newly-formed, and a complete midwifery service was thus provided for Caine and the villages of Cherhill, Compton Bassett, Hilmarton and Yatesbury. The elimination of the handy-woman, who had already almost completely disappeared from the administrative County except in this district, will naturally follow in this area also in course of time. It is very satisfactory that the gap which had hitherto existed in the otherwise practically complete midwifery service in the County has thus been filled. Pupil midwives are constantly being trained by the County Nursing Association, aided in this and other connections by grants from the County Council, and thus a supply of trained midwives under contract is available for the smaller and scattered District Nursing Associa¬ tions which are not always in a position to pay a full salary. The work of certain of the District Nursing Associations in urban areas has grown largely during recent years with the result that at Warminster, Melksham and Stratton,