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20
The responsibility for Maternity and Child Welfare rests upon the Borough
Council as the Sanitary Authority. The Centres in the Borough involve an expenditure
exceeding two thousand pounds per annum, which is met entirely out of
voluntary subscriptions and Government grants, and the provision of the dental
centre might well be a contribution from the Council to their work. The Local
Government Board have stated in a letter dated 20th December, 1917, that they
will repay to the Council 50 per cent, of the cost of the work. If this provision is
made by the Council, its administration might well be undertaken by your SubCommittee.
This recommendation in regard to a dental clinic refers only to extractions
and fillings, and not to the question of artificial teeth. The women attending the
Centres are ill able to pay for dental treatment, and this is one of the reasons why
they do not secure it. Moreover any charge would tend to add to their natural
reluctance to undergo treatment, and I would therefore suggest that, like the
other attention they receive at the Centres, it should be provided free, as far as
concerns extractions and stoppings.
There remains the important question of the provision of artificial teeth. This
is an essential part of the problem and in many cases it is impossible to remove the
bad teeth until it is certain that the patient will be able to get new ones. They
are expensive and at present the Local Government Board exclude dentures from
the expenditure towards which they will make a grant." It would therefore seem
desirable that poor women who need dentures which they clearly cannot afford,
should be helped from funds provided wholly or partially from voluntary sources.
The matter is, however, one which cannot be neglected in a complete scheme, and
the provision of dentures is essential to the most effective working of a dental
clinic. At present a certain amount of help for poor patients in this direction is
obtainable from various funds, including the Sunday Hospital Fund, the Surgical
Aid Society, the Charity Organisation Society, and the Ivory Cross, but this is
not sufficient to meet our needs. The Sub-Committee should therefore consider
the possibility of raising a special voluntary fund for helping necessitous mothers
in paying for artificial teeth, and it would be most valuable if a nucleus of the
fund could be obtained from the Mayor's Local Charities Fund and other
established local charitable agencies. It is only by such co-operation between the
local authority and voluntary effort that the best results can be obtained.
I am, etc.,
T. Shadick Higgins,
Medical Officer of Health.
A municipal dental clinic for expectant and nursing mothers and young
children on the lines indicated in the report was opened early in 1918 at the
British Dentists' Hospital, 31, Camden Road.
* Since this was written the Board have extended their grant to the provision of dentures in
necessitous cases.
Work of the Voluntary Institutions.
The work done during 1917 at the 11 voluntary centres (and by the Borough
Health Visitors) is shewn in the following table:—