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medical advice is needed for any child seen under this follow-up scheme, an immediate
appointment is made for further attention at the Newcomen Clinic.
Impaired Hearing in Young Children
Standard screening tests for the hearing of babies and young children were
carried out by medical staff with special training in this work. Any child thought to
have impaired hearing was referred, with the consent of the general practitioner, to
the Council's otologist for further examination. The names of such children were
added to the handicapped register.
Young children with impaired hearing who required a hearing environment and
children who failed to acquire speech because their parents were deaf or because of
language difficulties in the home, were, on the recommendation of the otologist,
permitted to attend day nurseries for three hour sessions without charge.
Phenylketonuria
Phenylketonuria is a rare inborn metabolic disorder in which a baby is born
without one of the essential chemicals that help to break down food for digestion:
this results in one of the ingredients of most foods building up to a high level in the body,
which may have a damaging effect on the brain. Screening tests for the detection of
phenylketonuria using "Phenistix" reagent strips were carried out routinely on all
young babies; those thought to be at special risk were retested. All positive and doubtfull
negative results were checked by ferric-chloride test and referred to the hospital
service for further examinations if necessary. No case of phenylketonuria was found
during 1967.
Health Visiting
The statutory definition of a health visitor as one who visits people in their
homes to advise on the care of young children, persons suffering from illness, expectant
and nursing mothers and the measures necessary to prevent the spread of infection,
no longer seems adequate. Her role has changed in order to adapt to the changing
needs and circumstances of her clients.
Advances in medical science have led to the survival of greater numbers of
handicapped children and one of the functions of the health visitor is the early
detection of handicaps, whether physical or mental. Detection is not limited to
handicaps but embraces ill-health generally and is a concomitant of preventive
health measures, particularly health education in which field the health visitor plays
a vital part.
One health visitor is attached full-time to a four-doctor group practice; others
assist part-time at two general practitioner groups and help in the running of well
baby clinics. These schemes of attachment or liaison are working extremely well and
ensure even closer links with general practitioners in the Borough. The health visitor's
in volvement with social problems affecting families in her care demands co-operation
with other social service departments also which implies the identification of need
and the mobilisation of resources to meet those needs.
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