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7
concern in relation to environmental pollution, however, the problems
created by undue noise, unpleasant odours, and chemical
contamination of soil or water steadily loom larger on the horizon
of the Health Department. Thanks to the cheerful industry and
leadership of the Chief Public Health Inspector, Mr. Winton, the
environmental health division is in good fettle and coping well with
the challenge presented by an increasingly complex environment.
An attractive environment—physically safe, emotionally tranquil
and aesthetically pleasing—has become a prized community objective
in a bustling and congested island. Growing public priority is
similarly accorded to family planning measures and here Wandsworth
is well to the fore. In 1971 new weekly sessions were provided
at three of the clinics run on behalf of the Council by the
Family Planning Association ; compared with the previous year
new patients increased by nearly one-quarter and the total number
of attendances at the clinics rose from 17,023 to 20,318. The
domiciliary service continued to fill a vital need. With the progressive
expansion of birth control facilities in the Borough the
family planning movement is making a significant contribution to
cervical cytological screening. However the screening clinics for
the general public provided by the Council still have a part to
play, on average eight women attending each session held during
the year. The total attendances numbered 2,533 as opposed to
2.352 in 1970. In April a new screening venture commenced in
association with the Renal Infection Unit at Charing Cross Hospital
with the object of assessing the significance of symptomless urinary
infections in adult women. To this end women attending two
cervical cytology clinics and one family planning clinic were invited
to participate in the survey. By the end of the year over 400 women
had been screened and of these roughly one in every twenty had
an asymptomatic bacteriuria; further investigation revealed the
presence in approximately one in five of such symptomless infections
of a local abnormality or associated general condition requiring
observation or treatment. The significance of asymptomatic
bacteriuria, in the absence of any other abnormality, is also being
assessed ; to this end all women in this group are being followed
up to determine whether the condition tends to recur following
treatment or, alternatively, to disappear naturally.
Maternal and child health services, like family planning and
cervical cytological screening, are provided by the local health
authority in support of the family doctor who has a key role to play
in all these fields. The virtual doubling of the number of confinements
attended by Wandsworth midwives in the general practitioner
obstetric unit at the Weir Maternity Hospital was thus a particularly
satisfying feature of 1971. This important domiciliary midwifery
commitment and the large number of early discharges from
hospital following delivery continue to offset the steady decline
in home confinements. During the year well over 12,000 children
attended the child health clinic sessions where doctors and health