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In 1968 a special two-day in-service training course was held for all medical officers and
health visitors. Thereafter the aim was realised of testing every baby's hearing between six and
ten months of age as part of the At Risk screening programme.
The audiology unit comprises the basic staff needed for this purpose, but when further
expert opinion is required, this can easily be arranged. Sometimes neurological, visual or
psychiatric opinion may have to be sought especially where deafness may only be a part of
a more complicated disorder of communication.
By mutual arrangement between the Bexley and Bromley Education Authorities, special
shared accommodation for partially hearing children was made. Places were allocated to Bexley
children at the new school for the partially hearing children of nursery and primary school
age in Bromley, Darnick Wood School. Reciprocally, it was hoped to make available places for
Bromley children at the new unit for children of secondary school age attached to Crayford
Secondary School. These changes were made in 1969.
On the Welfare side all persons aged 16-64 years on the register in mid-1968 were in
employment, not just in the traditional leather and shoe trade but in a remarkable array of
no less then 31 different occupations. The Department provided a direct service for the deaf,
for example, assistance with speech and lip-reading, and interpreting in many different types
of situation.
Both sections of the Department had useful co-operation with the two well-known voluntary
societies in this field, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and the National Deaf Children's
Society.
A service of this kind could not be considered as comprehensive if it did not include the
seeds of its own dissolution. Preventive measures fall into two main groups, medical and
environmental, and in the year there were two radical developments, one in each of these spheres.
Rubella vaccination for young females commenced throughout the country (see elsewhere
under Infectious Diseases).
The Noise Advisory Council was inaugurated to advise the Government on the problems
of noise from traffic, aircraft or the neighbourhood. Similar industrial bodies were beginning
to look more closely at the problems of noise in industry. These developments may be expected
to yield an appreciable quota to the total preventive effort.
GENERAL MIDWIFERY PROVISION
The domiciliary midwifery service was staffed in 1970 by the Non-Medical Supervisor of
Midwives, Deputy Non-Medical Supervisor and 14 midwives. The 3 general practitioner maternity
units, the obstetric unit at Queen Mary's Hospital and the early discharge schemes continued.
The trend towards more hospital confinements, also noted in the last Report became more positive
as the following percentage indicate:—
60