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Vaccination and Immunisation - Application of Computer Procedures
During 1968 the application of computer procedures to the health services was agreed by the
Social Services Committee, and in the first instance computer services will be used in the immunisation
programme.
All children born on or after 1st January 1969 will be included. The computer programme has
been designed to make appointments for children to attend for immunisation as they reach the
appropriate age ana to record the details of the doses given. It is not practicable in the first instance
to include the existing records of older children, and for the time being they will continue to be dealt
with by the present methoas.
It is hoped that many of the local family doctors will also join in the scheme, which should help
to reduce some of their clerical work.
Other local authorities have found that the use of the computer has increased the proportion of
children immunised, and it is expected that the same results will be produced in Haringey.

The above table represents the incidence of new Haringey cases coming to the Venereal Disease
Clinic at the Prince of Wales's Hospital in the past three years. Their significance for Haringey as a
whole is debatable, since a considerable number of Haringey patients seek their treatment outside
the Borough, and not all clinics report their attendances. 1967 showed a striking increase over the
previous year, and we wondered at the time if this might have indicated increased use of the local
clinics by Haringey people rather than a true rise in numbers; but had to concede that the figures had
been going up all over the country and that there was no reason to assume that Haringey might be
different. The total for 1968 may conceal a greater real increase if the opening of the Victoria Line
is resulting in more patients travelling into Central London for treatment. The most sinister-seeming
figure at the Prince of Wales's Hospital clinic is the one for gonorrhoea, which has increased by 20%
in one year. The fall in other venereal conditions may not be as re-assuring as it looks, for here we
are dealing with a range of conditions some of which may not be venereal in origin.
One sometimes forgets when talking of V.D. that it is as much a symptom of social malaise as a
disease complex in its own right. A society which accepts the encouragement of promiscuity in
books and films has no right to be surprised when individuals act them out in real life and perhaps
suffer the consequences. Films like "Seventeen" and "Round the Mulberry Bush" convey the implicit
message that sexual experience is essential for young people, and that there is something wrong with
those who don't have it. Venereal disease is, of course, not mentioned; ana possible pregnancy has
only a brief mention in one of them. The trouble with this kind of attitude is that it ignores a more
profound human need, the longing for deep, enduring affection. Possibly in condemning promiscuity
we are wrong to lay so much emphasis on the risks of venereal disease, which seem to be regarded by
many of its victims as merely an unlucky fall of the dice easily remedied by the wonaer drugs. More
emphasis should be placed on the fact that mutual sexual satisfaction is a long term achievement by
a team of two. It could be that the promiscuous person pays a heavier price than disease for the
ultimate consequence of shallow relationships and easy indulgence is failure to realise oneself fully
as a human being.
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