Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth, Metropolitan Borough]
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77
Our future plans include the opening of a family planning clinic
(to be operated on our behalf by the Family Planning Association)
at St. George's Hospital, Tooting, subject to the agreement of the
Board of Governors. Discussions to this end were in progress at
the end of the year. Allowance for appreciable further expansion
has been made in the 1972/73 budget since family planning and the
quality of domestic life are closely related. Close liaison with
family doctors and hospital obstetricians and gynaecologists is
essential if timely advice is to be given to all mothers who have
recently been delivered and to those whose pregnancies have had
to be terminated. The avoidance of unwanted pregnancies and
the reduction in the number of abortions is wholly in the interests
of the public health. Even more important in the years ahead must
be the expansion of our health education programme in secondary
schools so that every boy and girl is fully acquainted with the
biological facts of life set in the wider context of human relationships
and thus of personal and civic responsibility.
The statistical analysis which follows (Tables 21 and 22) shows
the number of patients who were helped and the methods of
contraception which were chosen.
TABLE 21
New patients seen :— | |||
Medical | 220 | 62 | |
Social | 3,116 | 2.667 | |
Totals | 3,336 | 2,729 | |
Contraceptive methods advised :— | |||
Sheath | 66 | — | |
Oral contraceptive | 2,074 | — | |
Diaphragm | 493 | — | |
Intra-uterine device | 519 | 368 | |
Other methods | 52 | 2,361 | |
No method advised | 132 | — | |
Established patients attending for first time during the year | 4,909 | 4,074 | |
Number of attendances (including new patients) | 20,318 | 17,023 | |
Number of premises in use as family planning clinics at end of year | 8 | 7 | |
Number of sessions held | 1.162 | 930 |