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21
HEALTH SERVICES OF THE AREA
(A) PERSONAL HEALTH
The Middlesex County Council, as local health authority, continued
during the year to provide within the Borough certain health services
under Part III of the National Health Service Act and the Nurseries and
Child Minders Regulation Act. The day to day administration of some
of these services was delegated to a local Area Health Committee.
Section 22—Care of Mothers and Young Children
Clinic facilities are made available each week throughout the
Borough where expectant mothers can receive ante-natal care throughout
their pregnancy. Mothercraft classes offering advice and care of the
expectant mother and child are available and, judging from the numbers
attending, provide a worthwhile service. Ante-natal relaxation classes
are now a well established feature of these clinics and the instruction
and advice given is of value in helping the mother to have an easier
confinement.
The infant welfare sessions at the clinics are the obvious follow-on
to the ante-natal sessions. Here advice on the feeding, hygiene and
general management of infants and toddlers is available, with facilities
for vaccination against smallpox and immunisation against diphtheria,
whooping cough, tetanus and poliomyelitis.
Dental treatment is available for all expectant and nursing mothers
and children.
In addition to the above clinic sessions, many general practitioners
are now holding their own infant welfare sessions and, in some cases,
rave approached the department regarding the possibility of having a
Health Visitor to assist them at these sessions. It has not been possible
to accede to these requests as yet but the matter is under consideration,
and is tied up with the much bigger aspect of attachment of Health
Visitors to a practice where the whole scope of their training would be
available, rather than confined to the smaller field of infant welfare alone.
The service for taking blood specimens from expectant mothers at
the local ante-natal clinics continued during the year but, in the light of
experience, these sessions were finally amalgamated into one session per
week, which is held on every Thursday afternoon at the Caryl Thomas
clinic, Headstone Drive. Appointments are made by telephoning the
clinic—Tel: Harrow 4484.
Day Nurseries
Two day nurseries are provided by the Middlesex County Council
for the needs of children aged 0-5 years for whom it is considered nursery
provision is required on health grounds.