London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Bexley 1970
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bexley]
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During the year the following foods or dietary supplements were distributed from welfare food centres or clinics. (1969 figures are given for comparison).
| 1969 | 1970 | |
|---|---|---|
| National Dried Milk (Packets) | 3,687 | 2,256 |
| National Orange Juice (Bottles) | 78,600 | 82,488 |
| National Cod Liver Oil (Bottles) | 2,320 | 2,089 |
| A. & D. Tablets (Packets) | 3,243 | 3,364 |
| Proprietary Dried Milk (Packets) | 50,580 | 41,174 |
| Proprietary Vitamin Preparations (Items) | 34,091 | 33,358 |
| Other (Packets) | 10,272 | 8,810 |
There was an obvious preference being shown for proprietary dried milk as against national
dried milk; there appears to be a decline in the overall sales of these commodities and it will
be interesting to note if this will continue in future years. The use of clinics as alternatives
to chemists shops is not encouraged, in fact advice to mothers to be able to give their infants
properly balanced diets is one of the most important functions of the child health service.
DAY NURSERIES, CHILD MINDERS AND PLAY GROUPS
NURSERY AND CHILD MINDERS' ACT
This Act came into force in 1968, which made it the local authority's responsibility to
register all premises in which children under the age of 5 were looked after for over 2 hours
a day and to register all those persons who undertake the daily minding of any child under
school age.
The numbers of registered premises and child minders, and places available in each year, in each category, are shown in the following table:
| 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | No. of places | No. | No. of places | No. | No. of places | |
| Day Nurseries | 3 | 148 | 4 | 178 | 4 | 178 |
| Child Minders | 12 | 101 | 223 | 495 | 272 | 526 |
| Play Groups | 30 | 908 | 42 | 1,286 | 47 | 1,447 |