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57
to offer free family-planning advice to all; the Minister's advice
was accepted in full. This means that Wandsworth provides a
completely comprehensive service, based on the clinics but providing
for home visits where these prove to be necessary. Advice
or treatment to unmarried persons between the ages of fifteen and
twenty-one years is given at the discretion of the doctors attending
such cases at the clinics. There is no hard-and-fast rule, each
doctor using his clinical judgment on the merits of the individual
case. Where patients are under the age of 16 years they may be
seen by a doctor at a clinic, but normally no advice or treatment
is offered and the patient is referred to an appropriate hospital.
Charges are made for supplies or appliances provided for nonmedical
cases, but are subject to abatement in necessitous circumstances.
By agreement with the Local Medical Committee, a nonmedical
patient who is unable to afford supplies or appliances
prescribed by a family doctor may be referred by the doctor to
the nearest family planning clinic, where the items can be supplied
and the charge assessed in accordance with a scale laid down by
the Council. In this way there is complete freedom of clinical
judgment for the general practitioner and the patient is able to
benefit from the scheme which applies, of course, to all Wandsworth
residents. Applications for reduced charges are kept completely
confidential and are dealt with by the Association.
In order to simplify the financial arrangements between the
Council and the Family Planning Association it was decided that
the Association would be reimbursed the net approved expenditure
on clinics operating in Wandsworth and that that expenditure
should include an appropriate proportion of branch-office costs
and contributions. This decision has cut out much of the accounting
procedure formerly necessary on each individual case and has
contributed to the smooth running of the scheme.
Much of the credit for the excellent co-operation between the
Association and the Department must go to the Association officers,
in particular to Mrs. L. Harvey, the Chairman, and to Mrs. R.
Crampton Smith, the Organizing Secretary. It is most gratifying
to find such amicable relationships between voluntary and official
bodies.
At the end of the year there were 12 sessions being held weekly
in Wandsworth, six in the evening and six during the day. The
following tables show the work carried out during the year.
A. New patients (Domiciliary work is shown in brackets)
(i) Number of cases seen
Medical 168 (22)
Social 1,287 (65)
Total number seen 1,455 (87)