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9. FAMILY PLANNING
During the year the Council took important decisions in relation to its Family
Planning Service as a result of Ministry of Health Circular 5/66.
The existing provisions which the Council has made under Section 22 of the
National Health Service Act, are as follows:-
a) The Health Department provides a birth control clinic at Cherington
House Clinic, Hanwell, to which local authority doctors, general
practitioners and health visitors may recommend women for family
planning advice on medical grounds. Two sessions are held per month
with an average attendance of 20 per session. Women are advised and
taught a method and issued with appliances or the Pill. Appliances can
subsequently be obtained through any of the Council's health clinics by
a patient who has attended the birth control clinic. In 1966 36 new
patients were seen and a total of 429 visits were made to this clinic.
b) Per capita payments are made to the local branch of the Family Planning
Association for any women referred on medical grounds by the local
authority doctors. During the year, 21 such cases were referred.
c) The provision of free accommodation and free lighting, heating, cleaning,
etc., in the health clinics is granted to the local branch of the Family
Planning Association.
d) Financial support by the donation of an annual grant to local branch
of the Family Planning Association.
e) Distribution of leaflets/clinic times, and details of the activities of
the local branch of the Family Planning Association are made through
the health clinics, health visitors, midwives, and other local health
authority staff.
The following improvements in the service were agreed by the Council as a
result of the circular:-
i Notices indicating the times and places of the voluntary clinics in the
area will, in future, be prominently displayed in all health clinics.
ii In future all advice and treatment, including supplies, will be provided
free at clinics for women who need advice on family planning on medical
grounds.
iii The Council has agreed to support the local branch of the Family
Planning Association in providing a domiciliary service. There is a
great need to take the Family Planning service into the homes of those
women who should have this help, but who, for varying reasons, fail to
attend normal birth control sessions. Comparison of figures from the
Council's own clinics of women referred for advice and women who
actually attend shows a failure rate varying from 20% to 40% in recent
years. It has been shown elsewhere that these 'failure to attend' cases
can be effectively helped by a domiciliary service. Such a domiciliary
service provided by the local branch of the Family Planning
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