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SECTION II — PERSONAL HEALTH SERVICES
MATERNITY AND CHILD HEALTH SERVICE
The aims of this service are to reduce maternal and child
mortality and morbidity to the minimum, make provision for childbirth
in the home, and encourage the highest standards of care
and upbringing in all children, especially those who may be physically,
mentally or socially handicapped. To achieve this end, the
services of doctors, health visitors, clinic nurses, midwives and district
nurses are available, and maternal and child welfare services
in clinics, immunisation against infectious disease, skilled care in
day nurseries, and education and information on matters of health
are provided. The success of these services depend upon close
co-ordination with the family doctor and hospital services and with
other Health and Welfare Department and Council services, for
which I am very grateful.
The statistics on pages 4 and 5 compare favourably with
average figures for the rest of the country. To maintain this position
regular re-examination of services is needed with evaluation
in the light of increasing knowledge, and re-allocation of staff time
to match changing needs.
Notable results of such re-examination during the first year
of the new Borough are listed below :
(a) Child welfare continued its recent change towards screening
of the infant and child population for early handicap or
abnormalities of development and away from the traditional
emphasis on nutrition and minor treatment, thus displacing
the weighing machine from the focus of clinic attention. My
intention is that each child should have a complete developmental
and medical examination at an early visit to the clinic,
repeated as necessary, with special tests at the appropriate age
(such as a hearing test at the age of nine months) and that each
mother should have an opportunity for a discussion with the
Health Visitor at every visit. By this means parents will be
reassured of normal progress with the opportunity to discuss
any worries, and children will have full investigation and treatment
in the rare case of handicap. In some sessional clinics
this policy is difficult to implement, because of poor
conditions.
(b) It has been shown that unfavourable heredity, ante-natal
or birth factors, or certain illnesses in early life, can occasionally
give rise to handicap or developmental difficulties. Concentration
of screening services on these " at risk " children
has continued during the year, by encouraging these mothers to
attend the clinic and by extra home visits by the Health Visitor
with exchange of information with the family doctor.
(c) The large variety of foods and nutrients available in the
clinics was reduced to those necessary to provide for the full
needs of an infant, with at least one alternative in each case.
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