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50
Youth Advisory Service
The City Council's overall family planning service inaugurated in 1968 under the provisions of the
National Health Service (Family Planning) Act 1967 included the setting up of a counselling service for
Young persons seeking advice on family planning matters and adolescent problems.
The service, currently 2 sessions a week, is run by a general practitioner, a specialist in this field. One
session is held in the doctor's consulting room in St. Marylebone, a grant being made by the City Council
towards the running costs, and the second at the Hallfield Maternal and Child Health Clinic. On this work
the doctor is assisted by two social workers deployed by the Director of Social Services, who not only are
in attendance at the sessions but provide a very necessary link with youth clubs, discotheques and the like
as well as an extremely valuable follow-up service. A Health Department secretary acts as a receptionist at
the Hallfield Clinic sessions.
The number of young persons seen at each session is deliberately kept low, about 10, to enable the
counselling by the doctor and the social workers to proceed in a leisurely and unhurried manner. This has
produced highly satisfactory results to all concerned.
Vasectomy
The National Health Service (Family Planning) Amendment Act 1972 received Royal Assent on 26th
October, 1972, the main purpose of the Act being to place vasectomy on the same basis as other
contraceptive services which local health authorities may provide with the approval of the Secretary of
State for Social Services.
The Secretary of State commended the provision of such a service to local authorities and gave general
approval for the making of arrangements under the Act. Both he and the Chief Medical Officer to the
Department of Health and Social Security issued circulars giving advice and guidance especially on the need
for a very comprehensive counselling service to the prospective patient and his partner, facilities for the
operation and subsequent pathology and the qualifications required by the operating doctor.
No accommodation in the City Council's Maternal and Child Health Clinics being suitable for the
performance of this operation, the Medical Officer of Health approached four principal hospitals in
Westminster and the Family Planning Association seeking information as to what facilities could be offered
in accepting residents for counselling and the operation, including pathology and follow-up. Reports were
subsequently placed before the Health Committee and the City Council formally approved a free vasectomy
service for Westminster residents as from 1st May, 1973, using initially the services offered by the Family
Planning Association, the Marie Stopes Memorial Centre and Westminster Hospital.
VENEREAL DISEASES
At the special clinics for the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases based in four teaching hospitals
in Westminster, the total number of cases treated has steadily increased over the years reaching 48,893 for
1972 (45,652 in 1971). Details are given in Table 40 page 82.
Since 1965 the City Council has maintained a 24 hour 7 days a week Public Enquiry Telephone Service
(928 3401). This telephone is manned by lay staff who naturally do not give medical or nursing advice but
impart information to enquirers regarding the whereabouts of suitable clinics and the days and times when
these are held. Appropriate literature is sent to those who request it.
Operative as from 1st December, 1972 the Department of Health and Social Security made arrangements
with the Post Office for the introduction in the Greater London area of a telephone recorded information
service giving information about venereal diseases which advised the public, inter alia: "If you are in Greater
London and do not know where your nearest clinic is, ring 01-928 3401 (the City Council number); or if
you have the 1972 London Postal Area S—Z telephone directory, look under "Venereal Diseases" where
you will find a list of the clinics in the London Area". During the first few weeks of the introduction of
this service there was extensive misuse of the City Council's line (928 3401) and the Health Department
was inundated with bogus calls, some being suggestive and unpleasant. It was necessary to place a clerk on
full time duty to answer that telephone. By the end of December however the novelty had expended itself
and the City Council's personal telephone service reverted to the usual 20 to 30 calls a week, bona fide
requests for advice and assistance.