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CERVICAL CYTOLOGY
In 1966 the Minister of Health approved the Council's proposals to extend the services
provided under Section 28 of the National Health Service Act by the provision of a service for
the collection of cervical smears for cytology investigation by hospital authorities.
This service continued during the year with sessions in the Council's clinics. In addition
a general practitioner continued holding regular sessions in his surgery, assisted by a member
of the staff of the Health Department, and the Family Planning Association continued taking
smears at sessions held in Council clinics. From these 1,347 examinations were carried out
In addition, hospitals in the area read 11,084 slides and although all the latter did not refer
to borough residents it can be assumed that the majority did.
Details will be found on page 97 of the Appendix.
CONGENITAL DEFECTS
Notifications of congenital abnormalities under the national scheme recommended by the
Ministry of Health in 1963 continued throughout the year Defects found in stillborn and
liveborn children within 36 hours of birth were made on birth notification forms by hospital
or domiciliary staff, details of which are as follows:-
Number of babies notified as having one or
more congenital defects 43
Number of stillbirths and livebirths
notified over the same period 2,927
The rate of notifications per 1,000 total births was 14.7 compared with 15.6 last year
There are obvious difficul ties in assessing the real incidence of congenital defects under
such a voluntary scheme, but some help does flow in maintaining observation registers and in
follow-up to assess any handicap
CHILD MINDERS
Section 60 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 which came into operation on
1st November amended the Nurseries and Child-Minders Regulation Act 1948 in order to remove
various deficiencies which have become evident in its operation regarding the registration and
supervision of child-minders and premises used for the purpose. Registration is now required
of persons who look after one or more children under age of five for reward (not less than 3
children as previously) for two or more hours in the day. Formerly a ''substantial part of the
day'' was the requirement for registration. Other provisions extended the existing powers
enabling local authorities to refuse to register a person or premises and gave power to make
various requirements in registering a person.
Because the scope of the 1948 Act was so extended and the maximum penalties for failure
to register were substantially increased, wide publicity to the new provisions was given by
press, poster and leaflet campaigns.
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