London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hillingdon 1971
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hillingdon]
This page requires JavaScript
and there was no waiting space under shelter, the failure rate for appointments was very low and
the service was obviously much appreciated. In addition sessions were arranged at any clinic in
the area where there was sufficient demand. Previous experience suggests that the demand will
later decline and the sessions will then be discontinued or transferred elsewhere, thus making
optimum use of available resources.
It is known that certain women are more at risk of developing carcinoma of the cervix than
others, and a screening programme must give particular attention to such women. In the final
quarter of 1971, as part of the management by objectives procedure a study was made of the
proportion of women attending cytology clinics who were included in the group most at risk. Although
there was considerable variation between individual clinics (from 22% to 52%) the average of all clinics
showed that over 40% of women seen were in these higher risk groups. Recently published studies
have shown that women who start their sexual activity early are also at greater risk, and efforts
were made to identify those in this group.
There were six cases of malignancy found during 1971. Of these cases, 1 was under 30 years
of age, 1 had two children but had been married twice, and the others had three or more children.
All were referred to hospital gynaecologists for confirmation of the diagnosis and for treatment.
It is pleasing to record the grateful thanks of the department to the teams of cytologists and
technicians who provide so much assistance with this work, and especially to those at Hillingdon
Hospital who were under considerable pressure during the middle of the year.
It is pleasing to record the grateful thanks of the department to the teams of cytologists and technicians who provide so much assistance with this work, and especially to those at Hillingdon Hospital who were under considerable pressure during the middle of the year.
| Elers Road | Laurel Lodge | Minet | North -wood | Ruislip | Yiewsley | Industry | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of women seen | 136 | 514 | 353 | 247 | 235 | 188 | 46 |
| "At risk" | 52% | 40% | 50% | 44-6% | 22% | 50% | 35% |
| Healthy | 67 | 207 | 171 | 150 | 103 | 115 | 35 |
| Abnormalities found: Pelvic: Malignancy | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Cervical | 19 | 123 | 9 | 31 | 70 | 42 | 4 |
| Infection | 24 | 65 | 18 | 22 | 36 | 13 | 4 |
| Fibroids | 8 | 28 | 9 | 11 | 3 | 7 | |
| Ovarian | 5 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Prolapse | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |||
| Other | 6 | 2 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 23 | |
| Breasts | 4 | 43 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 4 |
| Hypertension | 6 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Urine | 9 | ||||||
| Referred to G.P. | 13 | 59 | 29 | 39 | 14 | 16 | 5 |
| Previous cytology | 31 | 319 | 55 | 78 | 50 | 36 | 22 |
CHIROPODY
The known difficulties surrounding the existing chiropody service were thrown into greater
prominence by the management by objectives procedure. At present the service is provided by
9 part-time chiropodists who work on a sessional basis in Council clinics and old people's homes,
carry out domiciliary treatment, or work on an agency basis for old people's welfare groups. The
pay and conditions of service are determined by national agreements and the number of patients
who may be treated in each session is controlled by the recommendations of appropriate professional
organisations. However, the demand for the services of fully qualified and state registered
chiropodists far exceeds the supply. The waiting time for a first appointment is twelve weeks, and
the average time between appointments is also about twelve weeks.
38