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The health of the children is good. They are healthier, cleaner, better clad and better
nourished than ever before. We risk now going the opposite way. Many children are too fat and
until they agree to watch their diet they become fatter and fatter until discomfort, ridicule and
unpopularity forces them to accept the advice which previously they would not accept. Then
begins the long drudge of slimming.
Day Nurseries
1971 has seen changes in health and welfare work with the separation into Health and
Social Service Departments. Day nurseries were transferred to the Social Services Department
in this borough on 1st November, 1971. We were able to transfer the four nurseries, which had
carried out excellent work in the past, and the newly built Morris Road Day Nursery which had
been opened recently and which had replaced the much older Ellingham Road Day Nursery.
Although the responsibility has changed hands the Health Department will still be responsible
for the health and hygiene in the nurseries and regular visits by Medical Officers will continue
as in the past.
Cervical Cytology
These clinics have continued with comparatively short waiting lists but never quite
managing to catch up on the number of requests. In 1972, when the first batch of "5 years
ago" women are recalled for repeat cytology examinations, it is anticipated that the load will
be more than doubled because of the need to repeat not only our own examinations but also
those which had previously been done in hospital.
The sessions held at Hatch Lane and Granleigh Road Clinics, the examination of
slides and the receipt of reports, have run smoothly and efficiently and any abnormality been
referred for further treatment.
Family Planning
Family Planning Clinics have continued to be run by the Family Planning Association
in local authority clinics, the local authority being responsible for financial arrangements for
those requiring contraception on medico-social grounds, whether they were carried out in the
clinic or in the woman's home. Sessions have recently been started in St. James Health
Centre (this makes the fifth centre in the borough), with a health visitor speaking three North
Indian Languages being present to help the women who require this extra help. In this way we
have been able to provide a satisfactory family planning service in which those who cannot
afford to pay for the help can receive assistance from the local authority.
THE SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE
Mr.G.P.L.Taylor, Principal Dental Officer, retired owing to ill-health in January 1912
after several months illness, and the following report on the work of the Dental Department
has been contributed by Mr.R.C.Ward, Senior Dental Officer:-
Once again we have suffered from a shortage of dental officers and this has been
reflected in the inspections and treatment that have been carried out during the year.
Mrs.L.E.Broadbent retired in March after seventeen years devoted service at Marmion
Avenue Clinic. We were indeed very sorry to lose such a popular and capable dental surgeon
and she has been greatly missed by both patients and staff. This left us with only two fulltime
dental officers (Mr.Taylor and myself). We have, therefore, been relying very heavily on
our sessional dental officers and three auxiliaries.
Despite the staff problems the number of children under five years of age who attended
for treatment rose from I 129 in 1970 to 1514 in 1971. Correspondingly the number of fillings
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