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
Islington 1969
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington Borough]
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PERSONAL HEALTH SERVICE
CARE OF MOTHERS AND YOUNG CHILDREN
MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH CENTRES
These centres have continued to be a focal point for the citizens of Islington during the past year.
All the usual functions such as child health, toddlers and ante and post-natal clinics have continued. Some
new activities have been started, as illustrated in the item on health visiting.
The geriatric visitors are now an integral part of the Public Health Nursing team and this has been
beneficial to the public and to the staff concerned.
The demand for creche facilities continues to increase and all sessions are well attended. There are
now nine such sessions.
During the year further decentralisation of nursing staff to centres has taken place. A start was made
on basing home nurses in the centres, and so far this has been successful.
Many educational sessions have been held in the centres for a variety of groups of all ages and it is
hoped to increase these further in the future.
There is no doubt that the attendance figures at Council child health clinics are affected by the increased number of such clinics held at general practitioners' surgeries at which health visitors are in attendance.
| Attendances | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | ||
| Child Health | 50,557 | (54,549) |
| Toddlers' | 3,079 | (4,373) |
| Ante and Post Natal (excluding G.P.O. sessions) | 4,864 | (5,327) |
| Total | 58,500 | (64,249) |
| Occasional creche: sessions per week | 9 | (8) |
| attendances | 5,293 | (4,102) |
DAY CARE OF CHILDREN
DAY NURSERIES - COUNCIL
There are five day nurseries providing 299 places for children under five years. A new nursery is being
built to open early in 1970.
Twenty-two students were in training during the year. Six students sat the N.N.E.B. examination and
all were successful. One student, in her second year of training, was awarded an Enthoven Memorial Prize
for writing a true account of one of her early experiences in such a way that it could be related as a story to
a young child.
The demand for nursery places remained high with consistently long waiting lists for all nurseries.
Only children from the highest priority groups were admitted.
One staff nursery nurse was allocated full-time to parents who had quadruplets early in the year.
One of the Nursing Officers is frequently invited to schools to talk to leavers about nursery training
or to take part in Careers Conventions. These visits to schools are of great value in recruiting nursery students.
During the year, Dr. Stephen of the Department of Health and Social Security made a study of
rickets and subclinical vitamin D deficiency in children between the ages of one and three. She investigated
children of the appropriate ages in the Council's day nurseries. Parental consent was obtained in all cases.
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