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79
Cervical cytology
1971 was the sixth consecutive year of a comprehensive cervical
cytology service available to all women of vulnerable age residing
or working in the Borough. Our clinics continued to be well
attended and in all 2,533 women were examined compared with
2,352 in the previous year.
The average number of eight patients who were seen at each
session gave the doctor sufficient time for obtaining a good history
of previous health, and carrying out a full gynaecological and
breast examination. It also allowed for general health counselling.
The women doctors in charge of the clinics are experienced in
gynaecology and obstetrics and in particular are concerned with
the preventive aspect of the work. They initiate the follow-up of
those women whose clinical or cytological findings are suggestive
of disease or disorder of the genital and reproductive organs, and
this entails close liaison with hospital specialists on the one hand
and general practitioners on the other.
Some general practitioners in the borough prefer to provide a
cervical cytology service themselves, but the majority advise and
encourage their patients to attend the Council's clinics.
During the year, approximately four women in every thousand
screened were found to have a positive cervical smear. Once again
the detection of minor but nonetheless frequently troublesome
infections or abnormalities proved an important by-product of
cervical cytological screening, such conditions being present in
almost exactly one-third of the women who attended the clinics in
1971.
The value of routine palpation of the breasts is illustrated by the
discovery of three cases of mammary cancer; in addition much
anxiety regarding the possible presence of a malignant growth is
relieved, particularly in those women who have a family history
of breast cancer.
The detailed statistical information for 1971 is given in the
following table :—