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112
Observation and Other Visits
These visits, lasting at least half a day, were paid by 880
student nurses from hospitals in Greenwich. The sessions are
an essential part of their hospital training and they entail a
considerable amount of preparation by the staff participating.
Other visitors (72) included Comprehensive school girls, University
students and overseas visitors, all of whom spent at least
half a day visiting child welfare centres, school treatment centres,
etc., observing the work and the services provided.
Surveys
Frequently all staff, doctors, health visitors, district nurses and
school nurses participate in important and necessary national
surveys. The following surveys are receiving the services of
Borough staff at present:—
Childhood Cancers
Health visiting and medical staff remain available to assist
the survey undertaken by the Department of Social Medicine at
Oxford University but no such deaths reauired follow up during
1969.
National Child Development Survey
This national survey continues to study the development of
children born between 3rd March and 9th March, 1968, inclusive.
During 1968, the ten-year follow up examination was carried out
requiring the completion of detailed questionnaires by teachers,
health visitors and school medical officers and a searching physical
and developmental medical examination.
A full report on the findings will be available in due course.
Spina Bifida
The survey by the Greater London Council Research and
Intelligence Unit continued into 1969 and, at 31st March, all the
180 children in the study had been visited at least once.
Analysis of the data collected is now in progress and, eventually,
the results will be published. The community will have a useful
prognosis of the medical, social and educational problems in the
lives of these children and their families and the opportunity for
forward planning must be grasped.
Soon after the above investigation began, the Clinical Genetics
Unit of the Medical Research Council embarked on a study of
mothers who had given birth to children with spina bifida or
anencephaly (a malformation of the brain which is incompatible