[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow].

  • Harrow (London, England). London Borough.
Date:
[1974?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    33 PERSONAL HEALTH SERVICES Care of Mothers Arrangements for the care of expectant and nursing mothers and their children continued. The trend towards hospital confinements was such that few babies were delivered at home. During the year the domiciliary midwifery service was integrated with that of the hospital, giving an improvement in continuity between hospital delivery and domiciliary after-care. Developmental Assessment All births notified in the area were recorded on the computer and recall arranged at regular intervals, e.g. 6 months, 1 year, 18 months, etc. At these ages the child's mental and physical development were tested and compared with accepted norms. Any gross deviation was referred for full assessment to the Assessment Clinic at Northwick Park Hospital. The Controller of Health Services, who had special expertise in testing the intelligence of babies, worked with the Paediatrician in making a complete assessment of the child's conditions and requirements. Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, health visitors and social workers all played a role in this comprehensive assessment of the child. The computer was also programmed to recall children at the age of 7 months for a hearing test and at appropriate ages for the various immunisation procedures. The following table gives the total numbers of children who attended child health clinics from 1968 to 1973:- Year Number of Children who attended Clinics 1968 10,833 1969 10,986 1970 11,486 1971 11,036 1972 10,618 1973 8,918
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