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The arrangements whereby some patients in the
Brentford and Chiswick areas are referred to a
privately practising chiropodist continued during
1966 and forty-four patients made 165
attendances for treatment for which payment was
made to the chiropodist by the council.
In addition to the foregoing treatments undertaken
by the council's directly-provided service,
the arrangements were continued with the Heston
and Isleworth Old People's Welfare Committee
whereby chiropodists treated elderly patients in
their own homes or at clinics provided by that
organisation.
The council continued to pay the organisation
an agreed quarterly grant of £425 which was
based on the existing case loading. The following
figures show the extent of the service provided by
the Heston and Isleworth Old People's Welfare
Committee during the year—
201 domiciliary patients received a total of 1,206
home visits.
243 patients made a total of 1,384 attendances
at specially arranged sessions. The slight decrease
in these figures compared with the corresponding
figures for 1965 was due to the prolonged illness
during 1966 of one chiropodist engaged on this
work.
The co-operation between this voluntary
organisation and the department of health is now
well established and this relationship was
maintained throughout the year.
Problem Families
Special efforts continue to be made to assist
families, often for long periods, where mothering
and fathering is inadequate and home life is
generally far below the accepted minimum often
due to poor management or irresponsible
behaviour on the part of weak or unstable
parents. Sharing in this work are members of the
Children's Department and voluntary agencies
such as the NSPCC. Two members of the medical
staff and one social worker from the Royal
Hospital for Sick Children also lent much help
with one particular family during the year,
supplementing our knowledge of two children
suffering from chronic illness.
Health Education
A health education sub-committee was set up
towards the end of the year to discuss health
education in general, to explore the possibilities
of extending health education in schools and to
investigate the means by which adult health
education in the borough could be expanded.
The sub-committee consists of four members of
the health department staff an assistant education
officer and the senior lecturer for health education
at one of the borough's further education colleges.
Talks accompanied by films and discussion
groups were held at all our infant welfare and
ante-natal clinics and at mothercraft sessions.
Mental and physical development of the child
formed an important part of these discussions.
The medical officer for the student health
service gave a course of lectures to students at the
two polytechnic colleges on a wide variety of
health matters including local authority
community health services, venereal diseases,
alcohol and drugs. He also participated in
conjunction with members of the college staff in
an induction course for overseas students. Talks
were given on the medical services available to
students, diet, clothing, and study in relation to
the British way of life.
A medical officer and a health visitor gave a
series of lectures on first aid to staff and students
attached to the St John Ambulance Brigade.
A series of talks on drugs supplemented by the
film 'Hooked' was given to youth club members
on request.
Lectures on health subjects including cervical
cytology and family planning were given by
medical officers and health visitors to several
adult groups and mothers' clubs.
Home Safety
Mr Jones, home safety officer, reports as follows—
'Attention is drawn to the fact that in 1965 in
Great Britain 8,384 people died as a result of
accidents in and around the home. This is an
overall improvement in the figures for the second
year in succession, and compared with 1964 the
death total decreased by 176 (or 2.1 per cent).
Home accident fatalities constituted over
thirty-nine per cent of all accidental deaths in
1965 and accounted for 1.4 per cent of deaths due
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