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105
I am indebted to Mrs. P. Regester, Administrator of the South
East London Branch of the Family Planning Association, for the
following account of her association's activities in this Borough
during the year.
"During 1970, numbers of new patients coming to clinics in
Greenwich increased as did the total of first and repeat visits.
Although no new centres were opened, more clinic sessions had
to be held. A comparison of the 1969 and 1970 figures for individual
clinics shows that while the majority of these increased their
total numbers, a few had slightly less patients in 1970 than in
1969. This is possibly due to the fact that slum clearance programmes
in areas such as Deptford have meant that there has been
a 'fall-off' in numbers attending in these districts.
An analysis of the figures, compiled from records kept by Greenwich
family planning clinics during 1969 and 1970, indicate the
reasons why new patients come to the centres, how they got to
hear about the clinics, the ages of the patients and the number of
pregnancies each woman had had before attending for the first
time. It can be seen from this analysis and others carried out for
groups of clinics elsewhere in the country that the average new
patient presenting to a family planning clinic is about 22 years of
age, has not yet had any children and has heard about the clinic
from friends or clinic patients.
Throughout 1970, family planning services in Greenwich continued
to run smoothly; the National Health Service (Family
Planning) Act, 1967, was implemented, as in 1969, with the F.P.A.
acting as agent."