View report page

- 121 -
EMERGENCY CALL SERVICE.
This service co-ordinates emergency cover for local authority health,
welfare and children's emergencies arising outside normal office hours.
It is shared between this Council and the City of Westminster and is
operated from Westminster City Hall. The cost is divided between the two
authorities.
During 1968, 1,056 calls were received by the Night Duty Officers,
which necessitated summoning, or consultation with, this Council's
services. The comparable figure in 1967 was 1,207.
HEALTH EDUCATION.
There will always be a need for health education and much of this
activity is necessarily centred on North Kensington with its high
proportion of houses in multiple occupation and its largely transitory
population, many of whom are immigrants. Other parts of the borough have
their particular needs and these are met by the health visitors on a
day-to-day and person-to-person basis.
The Council's links with the national organisations active in this
field were maintained, and Dr. W.T. Densham Ray, principal medical officer
responsible for the school health service, continued to be a member of
the Inner London Education Authority's panel on health education. A panel
of senior professional and administrative officers has continued to be
responsible for the direction of the Council's policy in health education
and a working team of health visitors under the leadership of an
assistant nursing officer has undertaken detailed planning and
preparation.
The year's programme was as follows:-
March and April
Nutrition
May and June
Dental health education
July and August
Holidays and preparing
for school
September and October
Play
November
Home Safety
December
The winter care of the
elderly and young babies
with special reference
to hypothermia.
The main feature of the programme during 1968 was the dental health
campaign during May, conducted with the advice and assistance of the
principal dental officer. An exhibition was mounted at two welfare
centres, respectively north and south of the borough, by health visitors
and other nursing staf. The four rules of dental health were
emphasised - correct and regular brushing of teeth and gums, avoidance
of sweet sticky carbohydrate foods specially between meals, regular
examination by the dentist and nourishing diet.
The nursing staff who designed and built the displays manned the
exhibitions with assistance from Mrs. Thomas, the Inner London Education
Authority's dental health education officer,and the oral hygiene
service.
Dental health films were screened at the exhibitions and a talk was
given by Apple Annie, who also distributed apples to visiting parties
of schoolchildren.