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PERSONAL HEALTH
The Council continued to assist in meeting the increasing demands for the
day care of pre school children by making available where possible clinic
premises for the use of private playgroups, by the employment of a part-time
playgroup organiser, and by making an annual grant to the local branch of
the Pre-school Playgroups Association with whom regular meetings continued
to be held to discuss ways of improving and expanding this service.
The courses for playgroup leaders run by the Education Committee and
consisting of attendance for one day a week for an academic year, continued
to be very popular. The Education Committee also continued to provide
evening courses for playgroup leaders.
Children in Care
There are in the borough two residential nurseries under the control of the
Social Services Department and providing places for 28 children. By arrangement
with the Director of Social Services, each child is medically examined
by the Council's medical officers on admission, after every three months
(every month if under one year old), and on discharge. Dental care and
immunisation are also arranged by the Health Department. In the ordinary
way, general medical services are provided by general medical practitioners.
Children placed with foster parents are given statutory, supervisory and
general medical care by general medical practitioners, but in some cases the
statutory medical examination and the examinations for certification of
freedom from infection are carried out by the Council's medical officers.
Co-ordination of
Personal Services
The co-ordinating committee, consisting of nominated officers from each of
the departments concerned, i.e. Town Clerk's, Health, Social Services,
Housing, and Education, continued to meet during the year.
Case conferences were held at regular intervals: new cases were discussed and
old ones reviewed where necessary. In addition, ad hoc meetings were
arranged at short notice to consider urgent cases.
During the year sixteen cases from the register of "problem families" were
discussed at conferences attended by officers from departments concerned
with their supportive care. Eleven new families were added to the register
during the year.
Problem Families
Seven families were receiving continuing supportive care at the end of the
year, three families were rehoused during 1971 and one boy with behaviour
problems was placed in a suitable school. The immediate problems of the
remaining five families were dealt with and review of their cases will be
arranged if necessary.
This service, which commenced in 1966 for women between the ages of 35
and 60 years, was continued during 1971 at ante-natal sessions and at the
special clinic sessions which are held when necessary. The test is for apparently
healthy women only and no examination, apart from the cervical smear,
is carried out. It is recommended that the test be taken at five-yearly intervals.
During the year 1,365 smears were taken. Cancer cells were found in the
smears taken from seven women. They were all married and their ages ranged
from 37 to 52 years. Since the service began a total of 12,062 smears have
been taken and 32 positive cases found, i.e. 2.7 per 1,000 examinations.
In October details were received from the Department of Health and Social
Security of a national recall scheme to enable women who had had a first
test since the beginning of 1967 to be followed up at five-yearly intervals and
Population Screening
for Carcinoma of the
Cervix of the Uterus
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