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56
Dental Service
A dental service for expectant and nursing mothers and for
young children is provided in conjunction with the school dental
service at certain of the Council's dental surgeries. During the
year there were 61 attendances by mothers and 477 by children
under five years of age.
Family Planning
The Council continued during 1967 the arrangements whereby
the Family Planning Association acted as its agent and provided
the service for Wandsworth women. In its annual report the Southwest
London Branch of the Association referred to the scheme
put forward by the Council in May, 1966, as the most comprehensive
proposed up to that date by any local authority in England.
That scheme, which was in force throughout the greater part of
1967, provided that the Council should accept financial responsibility
for advice on birth control and supplies of contraceptives to
all patients living in the borough and referred to an Association
clinic on medical grounds, whether the reference was by a Council
doctor, a general practitioner or an Association doctor. The
experimental domiciliary service showed early in 1967 that it was
proving as successful as had been hoped and the Council agreed
to pay the net cost of visits to mothers who needed contraceptive
advice but were unwilling or unable to attend clinics. The extension
of the service was under review at the time of writing and is
to be continued and where necessary extended.
On 28th June, 1967, the National Health Service (Family Planning)
Act, 1967, received the Royal Assent and the Ministry of
Health wrote to all local health authorities urging them to take
full advantage of the powers provided by the Act. One of the most
important provisions enabled them to provide advice on contraception
and supplies for any persons needing them on social
grounds and not, as hitherto, only in medical cases. The Minister
emphasized that an adequate family-planning service, fully integrated
with other community services, was an essential part of
family welfare and would help to relieve the burden placed on
other services by the physical ill-health and mental distress arising
from lack of knowledge and advice. Advice, examination, prescriptions
and supplies should be free in medical cases but a
charge could properly be made for prescriptions and supplies in
non-medical cases. No distinction was made in the Act between the
married and the unmarried. The Minister urged that authorities
should consider the provision of a domiciliary service for use in
special circumstances, where despite the need for advice a woman
could not be persuaded to attend a clinic.
In October the Borough became the first local health authority
in Britain to implement fully the powers given by the new Act and