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Included in these figures are 42 handicapped persons who made 155 attendances.
Ancilliary Service by Private Chiropodist
Number of patients treated 123 (23)
Number of treatments given 1,019 (986)
Domiciliary Service
The Domiciliary Service operated by the former Old People's Welfare Committee
was taken over as a Council service by this department on 1st January 1972. Changes had to
be made as the day to day work was shared by the staff of the Welfare Department and the
British Red Cross Society (Kensington and Chelsea Branch) whereas the Old People's
Welfare Committee exercised overall supervision and financial responsibility. I am pleased to
report that the variations in procedures and other changes were effected with the utmost
goodwill and without any inconvenience whatever to the patients concerned. All
administrative and clerical work is centred in Head Office and the chiropodists are glad that
they are now free to concentrate on treating the patients.
The first year of administering this service has proved, without doubt, that there are
large numbers of residents who can be reached only by taking these services to their
homes - I refer particularly to the elderly, the infirm and the disabled.
The following figures show the progress made during the year-
Number of patients treated 621 (492)
Number of treatments given 3,147 (2,552)
Included in Domiciliary Treatments are 12 handicapped persons who received 27
treatments as follows: —
Males under 65 years of age 8
Females under 60 years of age 4
We started off with five chiropodists working eleven sessions per week. It was soon
apparent that expansion was inevitable and desirable. The retirement of Miss Scott during
the year gave us the opportunity of taking stock and, with the employment of another
chiropodist on domiciliary work, the number of sessions was increased to thirteen a week.
The number of treatments given show an increase of 23 per cent over those for 1971. It is
extremely difficult to maintain this rate of expansion of the service with existing staff
resources. The service has reached saturation point when the chiropodists cannot take on
more patients and maintain an adequate level of service. I would urge that more resources in
money be made available for this worthwhile task of providing a service to a section of the
community who have very few opportunities of using the other services made available to
the public.
WELL-WOMEN CLINIC
In January of 1972, a Well-women clinic was opened at the Raymede Health Centre
in North Kensington and sessions were held weekly on Tuesday afternoons, staffed by a
medical officer and health visitors.
This clinic was intended not for the treatment of women with symptoms of illness
but for symptom-free women, apparently in good health and over the age of 35 years.
The aim of the clinic was to detect disease in its early or symptom-free stage and to
refer the woman for treatment or further investigation in order to prevent the development
of chronic ill-health, morbidity or incurable disease.
The Well-women clinic was publicised in the press and by posters issued to health
centres, public libraries, general practitioners and social service offices and it was stated that
attendance would be by appointment only in order to allow adequate time for full medical
examination and discussion of problems.
During the year, a total of 145 women attended and the examinations carried out