'The Work of the Child Health Doctor in the Community'

This pamphlet, published in Dec 1974, was produced by the Maternal and Child Health Group on behalf of the Society. It replaced the Group's previous pamphlet 'The Doctor and the Child Welfare Centre' issued c.1967 as a guide for doctors doing sessional work in local authority clinics and health centres. (There are no copies of this in the collection). The original pamphlet was revised in light of the 'Sheldon Report' on Medical Functions and Medical Staffing of Child Welfare Centres, 1967 (see L.27). Demand for the revised leaflet was great and the number of copies ran very low by 1976. Sponsors Glaxo Laboratories declined to contribute towards producing another edition and by 1977 the booklet was out of print. The Society decided to consider textual revision of the booklet following the publication of the Court Committee report on Child Health Services. A working party was proposed, but representatives of the Association of Specialists in Community Medicine (Child Health) declined an invitation to participate, preferring to wait until the Government and DHSS response to Court was known. As an alternative, in 1978 the Society held a competition to produce a new booklet of the same title, to include school medical inspections as well as work in connection with under fives. A prize of £200 was offered for any submission of sufficiently high standards to merit publication. The winning entry would become the basis of a new publication. Although the first prize went to Dr A Roden parts of other entries were also selected for inclusion. The original concept of a small and simple booklet was replaced effectively with a small textbook. The upgraded version was titled: 'The Clinical Medical Officer in the Child Health Field'. It has not been possible to confirm, from the available information, whether this book was ever produced.

The Society's Child Health Special Interest Group worked on a revised version of 'The Work of the Child Health Doctor in the Community' from 1980. A booklet was available early in 1985 (see minutes of Council, Apr 1985, B.1/20).

1973-1985

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