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Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Figures regarding new cases at the Prince of Wales's Hospital Clinic, the only one in the Borough, were
substantially the same as in 1971, with a drop in cases of gonorrhoea below the 1968/70 levels. But the total
constituted only 23.1 per cent of the total of Haringey patients known to have been treated in the London
area, 7,078, which again is not significantly different from 1971 (7.149). If clinics in boroughs bordering on
Haringey are included, 80.1 per cent were seen in Haringey or its environs. Perhaps because of good communications
to the south and west, 1,344 (19 per cent) attended clinics in Westminster, the City of London and
Tower Hamlets. Very few attended clinics south of the river (55).

Lead Poisoning
The Health Department is sometimes asked to investigate the environmental circumstances resulting in lead
poisoning in children. In one case dealt with during the year a boy aged four years developed lead poisoning
after chewing paintwork. The high lead paints in the house were identified. During the enquiry he started
school and his habit of chewing paint ceased.
Two other cases showed levels of lead in the blood only slightly above the maximum of normal. In one of these
no possible cause could be discovered, but the other was found to have been given the present of a small
flute which he liked to play, a souvenir which some friends of the family had bought when on holiday in
Mamia in Rumania. The mouthpiece of the instrument consisted of metal containing 77 per cent lead.
Interestingly enough, while it would be illegal to try to import these, there is nothing to prevent tourists
buying them abroad and bringing them into this country. Details of the investigation and photographs of the
instrument were sent to the Department of Health and Social Security and the Home Office.
Home Renal Dialysis
At present (November 1973) electrical generators for emergency use are being supplied to eleven homes in the
Borough adapted for renal dialysis. The number of people using the renal dialysis might be reduced if the
supply of fresh human kidneys were more readily available. At the present time a complex arrangement can be
made to enable a donor to bequeath his kidneys but how much simpler it would be if kidneys could be taken
without consent from the tragic victims of a road accident, as I understand happens in Austria.
Community Mental Health
Dr. U.P. Seidel, Principal Medical Officer for Mental Health and Community Psychiatrist, continued to advise
the various departments of the Council on psychiatric matters relating to clients and establishments in the
community.
The reorganised National Health Service will come into operation on 1 April 1974 and with it all public health
medical officers will become part of the new Health Authorities which will join all doctors whatever their
specialisation under one authority.
This new scheme presents opportunities especially in the field of community psychiatry which may well be
turned to the advantage of patients in regard to their management, care and supervision as these shift from a
community setting to a hospital and back to the community again.
In order to facilitate a truly efficient, comprehensive and dynamically orientated community mental health
service, the closest of links must be established between psychiatrists and psychiatric hospital workers on the
one hand and the community social services departments on the other for only in this way can we render
appropriate and maximal help to psychiatric patients in the community. Co-ordinated planning of services and
facilities and shared responsibilities for clients in the community are of the utmost importance and should be
started at the earliest possible moment and not await an already implemented reorganised health service.
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