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her local Clinic where the baby's developmental progress can be checked
regularly by a doctor. During the year a total of 89,848 children under the
age of 5 years attended the Maternal and Child Health Clinics in Hammersmith.
Because the Health Visitor is trained to recognise any departure from
normal growth and development, she is alert to recognise any condition which
needs specialist advice or treatment. Thus special Observation and At Risk
Registers are maintained for children who are "at risk" or whose development
may cause concern, so that they may be kept under constant surveillance.
Another feature of her work with children is to encourage parents to take
advantage of the vitally important immunisation service, and in this her
work is aided by the fact that all immunisation records have now been fully
computerised which allows a closer check to be kept on each child's
programme.
Some parents do not always appreciate that a child may become backward if
it is not given adequate individual attention, spoken to frequently,
encouraged to explore and allowed to play with other children. Those youngsters
who are cut off from such forms of contact do not get full advantage
from their first years at school and may,in fact, never recover from this
handicap. In this connection, the Health Visitor's responsibility regarding
child development covers both mental and emotional growth as well as
physical progress. She will make particular effort to emphasise the
importance of these emotional aspects in relation to total health and does
all in her power to ensure that the child has mental stimulation and
emotional security.
Maternity and Child Health Centres
There are nine Centres in the Borough providing services for babies and
toddlers as well as ante-natal care, relaxation classes, cytology and
parentcraft. Family planning services are also available at most of the
Centres and reference is made to this elsewhere in the Raport. Once a week
a Health Visitor and other staff visit Queen Charlotte's Hospital in order
to run a clinic session for babies and toddlers, and such co-operation
between the community and a world famous Maternity Hospital is much
appreciated. One of the Centres at Burne Jones House was closed at the
begining of December to enable structural alterations and redecoration to
be carried out, but it is hoped that the Centre will re-open in the Summer
of 1972 with increased facilities and more comfortable surroundings for
both clients and staff.
Health Visiting Staff
In June 1971 Miss Joan Surr retired from the post of Chief Nursing Officer
and Miss Olwen Morgan from the post of Principal Nursing Officer. Both
ladies had given valued service to the Borough and done much to raise and
maintain standards of community nursing care and it was, therefore, a great
pleasure to hear that Miss Surr had been awarded an O.B.E. in the Birthday
Honours List. Miss D.J. Markham and Miss J.M. Edwards were appointed Chief
Nursing Officer and Principal Nursing Officer respectively following the two
retirements. The establishment of Health Visitors remained constant during
the year, seven students completed their sponsored courses and were
appointed to the staff in 1971 whilst a further five students were sponsored
for the academic year 1971-2 and are at present undergoing their training.
Training Within, the Borough
The heavy demand for observation visits to the nursing department continued
from a wide range of students and a total of 1,218 visits were paid during
the year by student nurses, pupil midwives, health visitor students, medical
students and students from other disciplines. In addition to receiving
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