HEALTH
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attended by government or private midwives, are less than five per cent of the total.
The Government Midwifery Service now has 31 district centres, four of which provide a domiciliary service. There are another 179 registered midwives practising privately from 105 maternity and nursing homes. Registered maternity homes are inspected regularly by the Supervisor of Midwives and her staff to ensure that conditions of registration are observed and that a sufficiently high standard is practised by registered midwives not working under the direct supervision of a doctor. Refresher courses are arranged by Government for private midwives.
The Maternal and Child Health Service offers free maternal and child care at 33 centres, 15 of which are full-time. Clinics are held for infant welfare and for children between two and five years old. Ante-natal and post-natal sessions are also held at these centres. When necessary babies attending the clinics are visited at home and health visitors also go to the homes of new-born babies whose names appear in the monthly birth returns. Health education forms a most important part of this work and includes practical demonstra- tions, talks, film shows and individual advice to mothers. Immuniza- tion against smallpox, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and poliomy- elitis is offered at all centres.
The School Health Service, which had been in existence since 1927, was revised drastically this year. Since the treatment scheme maintained previously by Government for school children could not be expanded to cope with the great numbers of school children a new School Medical Service, separate from the School Health Service and staffed by private practitioners, was inaugurated in September. This service, under the guidance of the School Medical Service Board, provides medical examination and treatment at a per capita fee, shared equally by participants and by Government; schools choose a doctor from a panel of private practitioners who have offered their services. The general health service for schools continues as a government responsibility concerned with the sanitary condition of school premises, the control of communi- cable disease and the health education of children, teachers and parents.