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PERSONAL HEALTH SERVICES
MATERNAL AND CHILD-CARE
General
Screening for phenylketonuria by the Guthrie Blood Test method
is carried out by our domiciliary midwives on all babies delivered at
home, or discharged from hospital before the sixth day. The laboratory
work is carried out by the Group Laboratories at Queen Mary's
Hospital for Children, Carshalton.
The two maternity units in the Borough take blood specimens
from all babies present in the unit on the sixth day.
Our domiciliary midwives took 672 specimens during the year,
41 of which were repeat samples where the first reading showed a
slightly raised phenylalanine level. There were no positive cases in
1972, but the health visitor continues to carry out a weekly test on
the positive case from 1971.
Observation and Handicap Register
This register was continued during 1972. The purpose of the
register is to keep records of those children who have had some adverse
factor during the pre-natal period, labour, or after birth which makes
them more likely than other children to have a defect. This information
is obtained from all possible sources; the domiciliary midwives
and the hospital obstetrics departments at birth and the paediatric
departments, family doctors, and medical officers and health visitors
of the local authority at later stages.
Those children found to have a definite handicapping condition
are kept under review and the appropriate services are involved to
give them and their parents comprehensive advice and care. Information
about these children is also given to the Local Authority Departments
of Education and Social Services to assist them in their forward
planning.
Those children who are under observation are reviewed at the
age of two years, or before if indicated, and if their development is
entirely normal, they are removed from the Register.
Table A gives details of the number of handicapping conditions
(some children have more than one).
Table B gives details of children who were under observation
at the end of 1972 in Merton. Both tables apply to children under
five years of age.
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