View report page

PERSONAL HEALTH
A summary of the outcome of the cases referred during the year is set out
below:
Babies kept by mother 22
Babies placed for adoption or fostered pending adoption 17
Babies admitted to the care of a voluntary organisation 1
Mothers withdrew application for assistance 6
Pregnancies terminated and miscarriages 8
Final placement of baby outstanding 9
"At Risk" Register
A register is kept of children who, because of some factor noted either
before, during, or after birth, may be thought to be more liable than other
children to suffer a mental or physical abnormality. These children are
kept under observation by the department's medical officers until it is
established that development is normal.
Information concerning a child who may be "at risk" is received from the
doctor, health visitor or midwife concerned, and in consequence 717 children
were placed on the register during 1970. 592 children were removed
from the register in 1970, leaving a total of 1,614 at the end of the year.
Of the 384 children who had hearing tests, two appeared to have some loss,
and both are still undergoing investigation.
Thirty-eight children were reported to be suffering from abnormalities of
significance and at the end of the year there were 45 in the section of the
register dealing with handicapped children.
Incidence of Congenital
Abnormalities
Detectable at Birth
Notifications, with details, of babies, live and stillborn, with a detectable
abnormality, are submitted by the doctor or midwife in charge of the
confinement. A return of these notifications, amounting to forty-eight for the
year, was made to the Registrar General.
The national figures may, in due course, prove a valuable means of indicating
hereditary, environmental, geographical, seasonal and other factors hitherto
unknown, which may influence the development of congenital abnormalities.
Phenylketonuria
The Guthrie blood test continued to be used for the routine screening of
babies for phenylketonuria and 1,571 tests were carried out by this method.
In the limited number of cases where for any reason it was not possible
to complete a Guthrie blood test, the phenistix test was used, and 292 tests
were carried out by this method. None of the tests proved positive.
"Battered Babies"
Syndrome
Circular CMO 2/70 dated 9th February, 1970, from the Department of Health
and Social Security, requested that discussions be arranged between the
local authority's Children's Officer, Medical Officer of Health and others
involved locally with the problem of young children injured by their parents.
These include representatives of general practitioners, hospital paediatricians
and consultants responsible for accident and emergency departments,
the police, and other local people or social agencies such as the
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. It was suggested
in the Circular that the group thus formed could review the local situation
and decide what further arrangements should be made to ensure that ail
necessary protection and assistance are made available to the child, to
others at risk in the family, and to the parents and other adults. It was
further suggested that this group should have a continuing function in reviewing
the local situation from time to time.
25