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others of medical and nursing staff attitudes to Secretary of State for Transport to remind self-poisoning patients should at least sound a him of all the earlier correspondence and enclosed a reprint of Professor McDermott's note of caution. J A T DYER Hunterian lecture. We are shortly proposing to circularise all MRC Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, members of Parliament and I certainly hope University Department of Psychiatry, that many of our fellows and other doctors Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh will write to their own members. I am aware that a minority of our colleagues object to Stengel, E, and Cook, N G, Attemtipted Suaicide. Maudsley Monographs No. 4. London, Chapman legislation which would compel the use of and Hall, 1958. seat belts, though, as in the case of the speed 2 Kessel, N, Jouirnal of Psychosomtiatic Research, 1966, limit and other similar legislation, anyone 10, 29. Kreitman, N, et al, British Jouirnal of Psychiatry, would be at liberty to ignore or circumvent 1969, 115, 746. such laws if he so wished. However, it is Kessel, N, British Medical_7ournal, 1965, 2, 1336. Lester, D, and Beck, A r, Psychological Reports, remarkable that one does not appear to 1975, 37, 1236. Attemt2pted Suicide. Circular HM (61) 94. London, encounter conscientious objection to the use of Ministry of Health, 1961. seat belts in passenger aircraft. Hospital Yreatmnent of Acuite Poisonin'g. Report of the The implications of all this for our sorely Joint Sub-Comnmittee of the Stanlding Medical Advisory Commnittees to the Central Health Services pressed hospital service and hospital staffs Cotuncil and the Scottish Health Services Council. must surely need no emphasis in a medical London, H.MSO, 1968. Hill, D, British MedicalJ7ouirnal, 1978, 1, 362. journal. Patel, A R, British Aledical Jourtnal, 1975, 2, 426. REGINALD MURLEY

Car seat-belt legislation-third time lucky? SIR,-I can assure Dr J G Avery (11 November, p 1364) that the surgeons have not been inactive in this matter of seat-belt legislation. In April 1978 the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England voted 31 to 1 in favour of governmental legislation to ensure the use of safety belts, at least by the front seat occupants of motor-cars. Even the one dissentient councillor has himself worn seat belts conscientiously for many years. Information about our council's resolution was referred to in letters of mine to the Daily Telegraph (21 April) and The Times (24 April). As a result of these letters Mr John Cronin FRCS (MP for Loughborough) put down a question in the House of Commons shortly afterwards. On 15 May 1978 there was a Hunterian lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England by Professor F T McDermott entitled "Control of road trauma epidemic in Australia," in which he described a dramatic reduction in the incidence of death and serious injury of car occupants following the compulsory use of seat belts in Australia.1 On 6 June 1978 I wrote to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to inform them that, a few days earlier, I had met the presidents of the other surgical royal colleges in Great Britain and Ireland and had received full support for the views expressed by the council of the English college. Later that month the Conference of Presidents of Royal Colleges (representing every medically connected royal college in the kingdom) gave unanimous backing to the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Last month, on the initiative of the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, all the surgical presidents sent a letter to the Secretary of State for Transport (with a copy to the Secretary of State for Social Services) underlining the impressive evidence on the reduction of death and serious injury of car occupants following appropriate legislation in both Ontario and Australia. We further requested that a promise of suitable legislation in the United Kingdom should be included in the Queen's Speech at the opening of Parliament. The Edinburgh college also sent letters to every member of Parliament in Scotland. On 6 November I wrote again to the

25 NOVEMBER 1978

Fourthly, to argue about "rights" is tricky. Is not the right to choose a right ? To choose between rights (is there a right to choose between rights ?) involves a complex of values which requires more space than I fear I will be allowed. Fifthly, the question of the cost to the NHS raises the issue of dictatorial tendencies, which it is not yet necessary to pursue. But since when has the parsimony or convenience of the Exchequer been a basis for legislation ? Sixthly, who will enforce the proposed legislation ? Our overworked police force, having, I suspect, more commonsense than the protaganists of this Bill, will probably not have the time or energy to act as a general nursemaid and the law will be effectively unenforced. Unenforced legislation is futile and brings the law into disrepute. Seventhly, the proposed legislation obscures the cause of accidents. Drunken and dangerous driving are, or should be, the subjects of President, legislation, not the purely cosmetic approach Royal College of Surgeon., of England of seat-belt legislation. London WC2 Eighthly, it only remains to condemn the McDermott, F F, Annals of the Royal College of attitude that, like an overprotective mother, Suirgeotns of Englanid, 1978, 60, 437. would nurse and cosset us all our days. We must fight to repel this tide of hyperactive SIR,-With reference to the letter on seat-belt maternalism at its earliest, at seat belts, lest it legislation, I agree absolutely with Dr J G rise and engulf us all. JOHN ALLEN Avery's statement (11 November, p 1364) that it should be made compulsory for children to Dryburn Hospital, be suitably restrained in cars. At the same time Durham car manufacturers should be forced to provide suitable fittings for children's safety seats and junior seat belts, thus making unnecessary the Study of causes of death in younger difficult process of removing seats, drilling diabetics holes, and tightening inaccessible nuts and bolts. SIR,-The British Diabetic Association, in As for adults, they should have the choice. conjunction with the Medical Services Study There is far too much restrictive legislation in Group of the Royal College of Physicians of this country, supposedly for the general London, is planning a confidential study of all public's own good. We should all be free to deaths occurring in diabetics under the age of make our own decisions where the life and 50 in the United Kingdom during 1979. health of others are not at risk. The aim of this study is to obtain a better I might add that I always wear a seat belt understanding of the causes of death in myself, insist that my children do so, and younger diabetics in the hope of improving strongly persuade my passengers also. our knowledge and management of this common disorder. Interested members of the PRUNELLA E NEWTON British Diabetic Association have undertaken Sale, Greater Manchester responsibility for the project in each of the NHS regions in the United Kingdom. It is hoped that area medical officers will assist by SIR,-i could not leave Dr J G Avery's letter notifying "regional representatives" of all (11 November, p 1364) unanswered. such deaths and that consultants and general Firstly, the issue is not whether seat belts practitioners will be willing to lend case notes are useful or good. They are. The issue is and give their expert opinion so as to afford the whether the people should have the right to project every facility to achieve its objectives. choose or not. In a free country the answer can Dr Michael Tunbridge is in overall charge of only be yes, they do. The State is not a nanny, the investigation and further information nor are the citizens helpless children. They regarding it may be obtained from him at the are responsible adults, capable of voting, British Diabetic Association, 10 Queen Anne getting married, choosing a job, and choosing Street, London WlM OBD. whether or not to wear seat belts. ARNOLD BLOOM Secondly, this is not to decry the use of CYRIL A CLARKE propaganda. By all means present the evidence, MICHAEL TUNBRIDGE endeavour to persuade, although the reasons A G W WHITFIELD for the lack of response warrant consideration. Is it a distrust of experts and a justifiable London Wl contempt for an obsessional "safety first" approach? Is it a different attitude to life? What other countries do will probably, quite Caring for babies of very low birth rightly, be considered irrelevant. weight Thirdly, only a fool would argue that merely because something is good and healthy it SIR,-Your leading article on this subject should necessarily be legally enforced. The (21 October, p 1105) outlined the problems of idea may be suitable for a Monty Python this high-risk group of patients in an admirable sketch about health police but is hardly a valid way. However, the solutions to the problems, basis for legislation. Other reasons are also although stated in the article very clearly, are needed. not easily put into practice, especially in a rural

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district situated over 50 miles (80 km) from the regional centre. I find it difficult to believe that it is impossible for all district general hospitals to provide most of the requirements listed as basic: 24-h skilled staff; monitoring facilities for temperature, apnoea, and heart rate; and measurements of ambient oxygen concentration and arterial blood gases. These facilities exist at this hospital and a recent three-year survey of our babies under 1500 g birth weight shows a survival rate of 76%°,O. The question of mechanical ventilation is, I agree, much more difficult to answer, but until an efficient "flying squad" service exists in this region we shall continue to ventilate our babies when necessary. Our mortality figures are not good for ventilated babies (73%o over the same three-year period), but for the survivors ventilation clearly shows some benefit even in relatively inexperienced hands. I was surprised that your article made no mention of the various methods available to assist spontaneous breathing in small babies with respiratory problems. Presumably you consider that these also are outside the capabilities of a district paediatric unit. Finally I would draw your attention to the article quoted on transport of newborn infants for intensive care.' Although the figures given herein are most encouraging, it should be noted that less than a quarter of the babies were transported more than 15 miles (24 km) and that two-thirds of these babies were already over 24 h old. H H KAYE

occurring in these small infants. If one arranges the figures from the five papers it can be seen (table I) that the incidence can be made out to have a range of 0-6 88"o, (with an average of 5-70o), but this is if one includes from the American series only the 44 which are called "severe." But in addition there were 33 less severe cases of diplegia, which in a statistical sense must be included. This would raise the proportion affected with diplegia to 12-05"e in the American series and in the combined series to 10°h. My own experience with infants weighing < 1500 g is shown in table II. The unit does not take cases from outside but does not transfer either. The numbers are necessarily small but they are as accurate as I can make them. So far we have analysed the figures for spastic cerebral palsy only. The table shows virtually no change over the 15 years, but the incidence is somewhere in the vicinity of those quoted by superintensive care units. We started intensive care in 1965 like everyone else, and whatever else it has done it has not altered the incidence of spastic cerebral palsy in this weight group. However, the figure shows that over a similar period for all weights our incidence of spastic cerebral palsy has fallen from around 6/1000 live births in 1951 to 0 8/1000 live

13 12

11

Children's Department, Scarborough Hospital,

Total No Incidence per 1000 colive births Incidence average =

-

-

(5yearly)

-

births in 1974. So now our incidence of spastic cerebral palsy for all weights is 0-08% and our incidence in infants weighing < 1500 g is 8% -l100 times greater. Cerebral palsy among those weighing < 1500 g has been a very small proportion of the total. Prevention of cerebral palsy would seem to be more concerned with activities in the delivery suite than in the special care baby unit. I think too that you should have mentioned more specifically the paper of Pape et a17 dealing with 46 surviving infants weighing less than 1000 g from a superintensive care unit. Although the incidence of "major neurological defects" was 9%e, the incidence of spastic cerebral palsy was only half this, but 16",, had retrolental fibroplasia and 210 had "severe developmental delay." Have we really made any progress since we stopped starving them ?6 R R GORDON Department of Paediatrics, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield

Bjerre, I, Acta Paediatrica Scandinavica, 1975, 64, 859. Churchill, J A, et al, Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 1974, 16, 143. 3 Davies, P A, and Tizard, J P M, Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 1975, 17, 3.

4

7

Fitzhardinge, P M, and Ramsay, M, Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 1973, 15, 447. Sabel, K G, Olegard, R, and Victorin, L, Pediatrics, 1976, 57, 652. Drillien, C M, Archives of Disease in Childhood, 1978, 53, 604. Pape, K E, et al, J7ournal of Pediatrics, 1978, 92, 253.

***The five references support the statement that the incidence of cerebral palsy (particularly spastic diplegia) in low-birth-weight babies of different birth weight categories receiving modern neonatal care is lower compared with earlier reports. However, different patterns of early neonatal morbidity, among other factors, strongly influence the outcome. In the paper by Pape et al cited by Dr Gordon all babies were referred from outlying obstetric units with a variable degree of supervision during transport; 750o of the neonates required mechanical ventilation. The results achieved by intensive care units orientated towards "crisis care" should not deter maternity hospitals from providing proper facilities (as outlined) for the care of their very low-birthweight babies.-ED, BMJ.

10 9 1 Blake, A M, et al, British Medical3Journal, 1975, 4, 13. 8 SIR,-Your leading article (21 October, p 7 1105) on this subject is imprecise when it says, "The most dramatic fall has been in the incidence of cerebral palsy [my italics], which is now only 0-5%O" (like others I thought this initially to be 0 50) The five references givenl-5 consist of reports of follow-ups of babies of varying birth weight. One2 is a 2 combined report on 639 babies weighing less than 2 kg from various centres in the USA 0 and one:' is a report of 107 infants of < 1500 g from Hammersmith Hospital. Both of these LCa) a)N deal only with cerebral diplegia and not with Do all pregnant women need iron? the other two forms of spastic cerebral palsy. Northern General Hospital, Sheffield: number and Although diplegia is the commonest, it is not incidence of spastic cerebral palsy 1956-74, all SIR,-With respect, I would suggest that the only form of spastic cerebral palsy weights. your leading article (11 November, p 1317) "Do all pregnant women need iron ?" asks the wrong question, for the answer is a simple TABLE I-Incidence of "cerebral palsy" (mainly diplegia) in five papers1-5 "No," which means only that some do not, which we know already. Routine haemoglobin

Caring for babies of very low birth weight.

1492 BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL others of medical and nursing staff attitudes to Secretary of State for Transport to remind self-poisoning patients sho...
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