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Handicapped Register
Babies and young children found to be handicapped are kept
under regular observation, referred, if needed, for specialist
advice and treatment, and in due course where necessary recommended
for special education. At the end of the year, 165
children under the age of 5 years were recorded as handicapped
or under investigation for potential handicap.
Women's Welfare
Sessions continued at Homchurch, Elm Park, Harold Wood
and Cranham clinics at which contraceptive advice was available
to women having a medical indication for a voiding childbirth. Owing
to staff changes, it was necessary to discontinue an evening
session which had been held regularly up to and including the
previous year, and this had the effect of reducing a number of
women attending from 321 in 1966 to 191 in 1967. As stated in
my report for 1966, the Council accepts responsibility for treatment
provided on medical grounds to women resident in the Borough
by the Family Planning Association at their clinic held in
Romford, and in addition the Council provides the clinic premises
free of charge, also making a grant for heating, lighting and
cleaning.
Cervical Cytology
The number of smears taken during the year at the six
clinics where sessions are held totalled 3,140, an increase of
620 compared with the 1966 figure of 2,500. The results are
set out in Table 10.
Smears are also taken at the Family Planning Clinic, by
general medical practitioners and at hospitals in the area. All
women over the age of 35 are advised to have a test at intervals
of not more than five years. Whilst the publicity which has been
given to the scheme has encouraged a considerable increase
in smears taken, nevertheless there are many women who have
not heeded the advice. The test not only enables the possibility
of cervical cancer to be detected, and measures to be taken to
prevent the disease developing, but also enables the disease
to be cured when detected in the early stages.
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