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Ante-natal care is now provided mainly by General Practitioners in conjunction with the
Midwives in their own practises or by the Midwives in Local Authority Clinics. All Ante-natal
patients are referred for relaxation and mothercraft classes to the Clinics supervised by Midwives
or Health Visitors.
Mothercraft and Health Education, described in greater detail later on in this report, now
include Slimming Clubs. The first such Club was started voluntarily by a Midwife. It met with
such success and demands for more facilities that during the year the following Clinics have
made this service available: Wren Road, Colyers Lane, Hainault and Sidcup Hill. They are
supervised by Midwives and Health Visitors and form a fruitful medium for Health Education
in correct nutrition and have shown an additional bonus in that several women stopped smoking
and have encouraged their husbands to stop also. Each applicant to a Slimming Club has her
weight checked and the General Practitioner is contacted to keep him informed of the diet
used and any problems arising. The Clubs are very popular and the only difficulty has been
to stop women attending after they have reached their ideal weight.
The Child Health Service is increasingly being undertaken by sessional Doctors, quite often
local General Practitioners. The number of children seen in Child Health Clinics by Doctors shows
a steady decline from 1969, indicating that more of this work is being carried out by General
Practitioners in their practices.
Our own Clinics are increasingly geared to developmental screening by Doctors and Health
Visitors. The rise in specific screening by Health Visitors is reflected in the increase in their
sessions: 129 in 1969 and 250 in 1971.
In view of the need for training in developmental screening, three courses have been held
in the borough for Doctors. These were recognised by the Executive Council under Section
63 and each course of about twenty Doctors was divided approximately equally between General
Practitioners and Departmental Medical Officers; our two neighbouring Boroughs seconded a
number of their Departmental Medical Officers to these courses. A further course was held for
Health Visitors, dealing with the special aspect of screening for early hearing defects. New members
of the Nursing Staff are sent from time to time to relevant courses in this field.
The dental care of the under fives is receiving increased attention by Health Visitors and
the Dental Staff, and is described in more detail by the Chief Dental Officer.
Welfare foods and certain proprietory brands are sold during Child Health Clinic sessions.
In addition, dried milk and vitamin compounds are available at the Brampton Road Health
Department, Town Hall, Erith and Sidcup Hill during office hours.
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