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112
the Borough does not constitute expansion, and centralisation of
a specialist service is more in accord with modern practice.
Intervals between appointments average eight weeks, and it
is considered that ambulant patients, most of whom travel daily or
weekly into shopping centres, would not find it difficult or costly
to journey to a clinic at these intervals.
Bathing Centre—Tunnel Avenue—A report on the working
of this clinic is included in the section on the Community Geriatric
Services.
Chiropody Treatment during 1965
No. of Chiropodist Sessions 5,135
Attendances:
Children 0-4 years 9
5 - 14 years 130
139
Males 15-64 years 2,818
65 years and over 4,657
7,475
Females 15-59 years 11,659
60 years and over 19,405
31,064
Total Attendances 38,678
No. of New Patients 1,336
DENTAL TREATMENT
(Maternity and Child Welfare)
F. ELSTON, L.D.S., R.C.S. Eng., the Chief Dental Officer,
reports: —
"As in the case of the rest of the Dental Services in the
Borough, the pattern necessarily pursued in 1965 was the one taken
over from the L.C.C. on the 1st April, 1965.
One Dental Officer, at the rate of two half-days per week,
was charged with the task of looking after nursing and expectant
mothers, and children below school age. As can be seen from the
appended statistical data, this one clinic did all it could to deal
with the considerable demand for treatment. All patients received
explanatory and preventive instructions, and the total of only 13
extractions in one year out of 840 items of treatment shows the
trend, and is gratifying. Nevertheless, the service in 1965 must be
viewed as a minimum token service, which did not go any way
towards meeting the potential demand.
This criticism is based on the fact that dental service for
mothers and young children should not just consist of treatment