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10
Care Unit. Furthermore, under the able supervision of Mr.Weedon,
the Principal Dental Officer, there was a marked expansion in the
dental service provided at child health centres for expectant and
nursing mothers and pre-school children.
Child health is part of family health - to echo the Sheldon
Report - and in recognition of this ideal special attention was
paid to the provision of training facilities for local general
practitioners interested in developmental assessment techniques.
A warm invitation was also extended to all family doctors in
Wandsworth to attend the Extended Course of Lectures (mainly
covering child health topics) arranged by the Health Department
as part of in-service training for medical, nursing and other
members of the staff. This series - which was officially recognised
by the British Postgraduate Medical Federation - proved
extremely popular, attributable no doubt to the excellence of the
speakers and the relevance of their subjects.
As a corollary to the focussing of medical attention on the
early detection of handicapping defects - the priority to be
attached to this task can be judged from the informed estimate
of the British Paediatric Association based on the Newcastle
survey that one in ten children leaving school will have either
intellectual limitation, physical handicap, recurrent or
established illness, educational inadequacy or difficulties in
emotional control - responsibility for giving advice on infant
feeding, hygiene, clothing and general management will rest
increasingly (unless there are special problems) with the health
visitor who will also contribute to screening activities. Thus the
undertaking of child health developmental assessment in the
setting of general practice is undoubtedly helped by the attachment
of health visiting staff. It is particularly pleasing therefore
to record an increase in the number of such arrangements in 1972
which also stimulate incidentally the routine home visiting of the
elderly. During the year the total of effective home visits made
by health visitors fell just short of 46,000 and included 3,880
to old people. With the growth in attachment schemes, of
necessity the role of the school nurse is being evaluated
afresh as mentioned in Part 5 of the Report since the findings of
the Newcastle survey also highlight dramatically the continuing
contribution which needs to be made in the field of school health.
In this context the need for the closest liaison between the
school health service and general practice is self-evident;
satisfactory links with the hospital and social services must also
be fostered.