View report page

FAMILY PLANNING SERVICE
8.1.1 Mr. Edwin Brook's National Health Service (Family Planning) Bill received the
Royal Assent on 28th June, 1967. Under its terms, local authorities were to be given wide
permissive powers to arrange for the provision of a family planning service to all persons.
The medical criterion was abolished and no distinction made between the married and the
unmarried.
8.1.2 It is perhaps appropriate to place on record here that the area which is now
Camden can boast a proud record of family planning provision before 1967. The work of
the voluntary organisations under the enthusiastic direction of the Family Planning
Association and Dr. Marie Stopes herself is well known. Probably not so well known is
the fact that St.Pancras Borough Council used its powers under Section 227 of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1936, to start "clinics for women" at the Kentish Town Centre in
1939 and at the Somers Town Centre in 1948. At these clinics, advice on family planning
was given. On 1st April 1965, when Camden took over as the local health authority from
the former London County Council, there were four Council-run sessions weekly and one
fortnightly at three maternal and child welfare centres. By the end of 1967, these clinics
for patients needing advice on medical grounds had increased to an average of ten
sessions a week and one fortnightly at nine centres.
8.1.3 Having thus to a large extent anticipated the new Act, Camden could already
boast at least one weekly combined family planning and cervical cytology session at
nearly every maternal and child welfare centre when the Act came into operation on
11th March 1968. All Camden residents can now obtain family planning advice free of
charge, whether in clinics directly provided by the Council or in clinics in the area run
by voluntary organisations such as the Family Planning Association, the Marie Stopes
Centre and the Brook Advisory Centre. Patients seen other than on medical grounds are
required to pay for supplies, though charges can be abated in cases of need.
CLINIC SERVICE AT COUNCIL CENTRES
8.2. By the end of 1968, 27 sessions were held each fortnight compared with 21 at
31st December 1967 and 19 at 31st December 1966, and provision has been made to
expand the service up to 23 weekly sessions according to the demand. Attendances in
1968 totalled 7,469 compared with 5,392 in 1967 and 3,725 in 1966: these figures are
broken down in the following paragraph. Advice given comprised mainly instruction and
supervision in the use of pill and cap contraceptive methods. Patients requiring the
insertion of the intra-uterine contraceptive device were referred to hospital or voluntary
organisation clinics.