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13
In addition to the school population, the scheme of the Clinic
also embraces the pre-school age groups. Children in these preschool
age groups suffering from any ear, nose and throat defects
are found during the medical inspection of Nurseries, Infant
Welfare clinics, etc., and by the Health Visitors during their
routine work. The inclusion of all pre-school children in the
scheme and full provision for their treatmert is very important.
Systematic attention to the pre-school age groups yields a return
in terms of lower incidence of certain defects at the school entrant
age, which compares favourably with the percentage of corrections
subsequently attained.
The provision of such clinics, properly staffed and equipped
by the Local Authority must serve a most important part in any
Health Scheme. A very considerable number of the defects
discovered during regular school inspections and treated at these
clinics would otherwise have escaped detection and treatment until
they had reached a chronic stage, with perhaps added complications,
when the prospects of a successful cure were very greatly
lessened.
These clinics, by reason of their local situation, have the great
advantage that they can provide, locally, for the children, the
necessary treatment, daily, when required, which would be
extremely difficult and in many cases practically impossible to
obtain at hospitals on account of the time and staff required, the
distance in travelling and traffic problems. In the great majority
of instances the children can safely attend the local clinics from
school without their parents; this would be quite impossible if
they had to travel long distances to hospitals through busy traffic,
as well as the very considerable amount of time lost from school.
Looking over the Returns of the Clinic for the past year,
1949, we find the figures in some of the more important groups
of diseased conditions bear out substantially the substance of the
preceding remarks, with especial reference to acute and chronic
middle ear disease in children. During the course of the year
there were only 26 cases of chronic otorrhoea ; twelve of these
were cases without ' complications'; and eleven of the twelve were
quickly cured by zinc ionisation treatment. The remaining 14
were cases involving serious complications—polypii, diseased
mastoid and 4 post-operated mastoids, which are amongst the most
intractable of all cases of middle ear discharge to get 'dry.'