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7
The midwifery bed situation of the hospitals in the area is now such that
in Hackney there could probably be 100% hospital confinement if all women wished
it. However, some women still choose to have their babies at home and there
will obviously be a need for a domiciliary midwifery service for some time to
come. The Borough has now reached the happy position where a woman may make her
choice of what form of confinement she wishes to have. As all the facilities
exist, although the first concern must be the safety of the mother and baby,
mothers have the choice of a hospital ante-natal care and confinement or of a
mixture of hospital and general practitioner ante-natal care and domiciliary
confinement, and a further facility of hospital confinement but of planned early
discharge.
The Borough continues to run a full family planning service. The service
is still run partly by the Family Planning Association and partly directly by
the Health Department. The figures available seem to show that the numbers
attending the Council's clinics are rising whereas those attending the Family
Planning Association sessions are showing some decline. The clinics are open
to all irrespective of whether the women live in the Borough or not, and are
open to both the married and unmarried. In addition to the ordinary clinics
there is a clinic run to give advice and, where necessary, the appropriate
services to young people. The need for advice to young people was considered
to be such that an extra session was made available during the year for this
purpose. It was thought that certain of the young people would prefer a more
detailed discussion with certain of the staff than had been previously possible.
Unfortunately this has not been quite the success it was hoped it would be. I
still feel that there are many people, particularly young people, in the Borough
who are not aware of the facilities which are available, and discussions have
taken place during the writing of this Report to see how this knowledge can
be better disseminated. I also regret to report that the domiciliary family
planning service that is available is not being used as much as one had
anticipated. It is a little difficult to understand the reason for this. It
is possible that some of the cases where it was needed have been dealt with and
that there are not now the number of people needing this type of service. However,
I really think this is not the case and again I feel that there is a need
to inform people of the Borough that this service exists should they wish to
take advantage of it.
The Women' s National Cancer Control Campaign mobile caravan again visited
the Borough to undertake cervical cytology, but was not quite the success it was
in previous years. However, the standing clinics have been well attended and
numbers attending show a slight increase. The Health Committee have agreed that
the caravan should visit again during 1971.
The normal services for the young child continued. Great emphasis was
placed during theyear on the problem of the "battered baby" and many discussions
took place between the various Departments of the Council and interested outside
bodies such as the various hospital services and other statutory and nonstatutory
bodies. A modus operandi was worked out and agreed between these
various organisations during the year.
A further playgroup run directly by the Council was instituted during 1970
and interest continued to be shown by various groups of mothers in the formation
of private playgroups. The Council continued to support playgroups by various
grants and a certain amount of money was received which could be utilized for
this purpose under the scheme for Urban Aid. Negotiations have been proceeding
for some little time with the Inner London Education Authority for the opening
of further nursery schools and nursery classes, and it is hoped that the Inner
London Education Authority will take over the premises at Fellows Court, previously
used as a playgroup, for the purposes of nursery education early in 1971.