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75
Since there is no Local Medical Committee exclusive to the
area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, the tendency is to
look to the local professional organisations for professional contacts
on a Borough basis. For many years, I have acted as
Honorary Treasurer of the Local Division of the British Medical
Association and this has brought me into close contact with most
of the practitioners in the area and certainly on any matters with
which the profession is locally concerned. I have found these
contacts of the greatest possible value. Consideration has from
time to time been given to the issuing of a weekly news sheet to
general practitioners. During the course of a year, numerous items
of information need to be transmitted from the local health department
to general practitioners in the area. Up to the present this
has been done by means of a circular letter as occasions arise, but
whilst a weekly news sheet might develop into a mere routine, it
is now thought that a periodic bulletin might serve both to disseminate
useful information or items of interest to the general
practitioner, and at the same time strengthen the link between
these two branches of the health service. This possibility was
under consideration at the end of the year.
(2) Hospitals
At one time I was a member of one of the Local Hospital
Management Committees. The Health Department through its
senior medical side is, however, represented on various Hospital
Committees such as the Control of Infection Committee and
and senior nursing staff are also members of the Nursing Education
Committees. There is also close liaison with all the local hospital
maternity units. The maternity liaison committees provide the
opportunity to discuss local policy regarding the arrangements for
maternity patients. The non-medical supervisor of midwives has
a good contact with each maternity unit and makes arrangements
for domiciliary experience of pupil midwives. The South London
Hospital provides the domiciliary midwifery service for one small
area of the Borough and their midwives attend one of our antenatal
clinics.
As mentioned above, there are close personal links between the
consultants at the hospitals and the medical staff of the Health
Department, particularly in relation to paediatrics, midwifery,
infectious disease and mental health. The Department of Paediatrics
at one of the hospitals sends junior members of the staff to
obtain experience in our infant welfare sessions, these usually
being in connection with their studies for the Diploma in Child
Health, and there are opportunities for medical officers from the
Department to visit the paediatric wards and out-patients departments.
We regard ourselves as fortunate in Wandsworth in that the
infectious diseases unit for this area of South West London is