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Boys formed 63 per cent. of the total of 848 cases analysed in the two groups.
At the clinics established by the Council at the Clapham Park, Tooting, and
Wandsworth School Treatment Centres, 269 pupils attended regularly during the
year; of these 70 (26 per cent.) were cured, 154 (57 per cent.) improved and 45
(17 per cent.) did not respond to treatment. Many of the children had been previously
treated at other hospitals, by private practitioners, or at child guidance
or other clinics. Each child is medically examined in detail, including urinalysis,
and is X-rayed or referred for other specialist examination and for advice for
conditions which may have a bearing on the enuresis. As confidence is established
in the parents and the child, improvement takes place, the periods between attendances
are lengthened and the parents are advised to bring the child back should
there be any recurrence of the trouble. Each child is followed-up by the children's
care organisation.
Towards the end of the year additional clinics were opened at Queenstown and
Streatham School Treatment Centres and at the University College Hospital.
Enlarged
tonsils and
adenoids
Negotiations were resumed with the four metropolitan regional hospital boards
for the purpose of setting up special units in hospitals to deal with the long waiting
lists of children referred for operative treatment for enlarged tonsils and adenoids.
During the year four units were opened (one in each of the metropolitan regional
hospital boards areas). At the beginning of September the two units which were
then open were suspended owing to the incidence of poliomyelitis. At the end of
the year two units were functioning. The numbers dealt with in this way were:—
By operation 992
Operative treatment not advised 670
Total 1662
Medical treatment was recommended for 316 children.
Artificial
limbs and
surgical
appliances
Artificial limbs were supplied free and were made and fitted at Queen Mary's
Hospital, Roehampton, to which children were admitted, if necessary, for training
in the use of the limb.
Because recent changes had sometimes caused delay in the repair of surgical
appliances, arrangements were made with the Governors of the Royal National
Orthopaedic Hospital to repair at short notice the surgical appliances (except
artificial limbs) of children in London schools for the physically handicapped who
had difficulty in getting repairs.
Specialist
clinics
Negotiations were entered into with the four metropolitan regional hospital
boards for the transfer of responsibility, under the provisions of the National Health
Service Act, 1946, for specialist clinics provided up to now by the Council under
the Education Act, 1944 (i.e., refraction, orthoptic, ear, nose and throat, rheumatism,
and enuresis).
Travelling
expenses
of pupils,
etc.
An extension was authorised of the scheme for the payment of travelling
expenses of pupils and their parents or escorts when attending clinics more than
two miles from the home of a senior pupil, or one and a half miles in the case of a
junior pupil, or for any shorter distance, when the School Medical Officer considered
this necessary (e.g., in the case of certain handicapped pupils), to include attendances
at out-patient departments of hospitals in London.
Recuperative
holidays
abroad
Through the courtesy of the International Help for Children, twenty-four London
children, aged 8-13 years, suffering from asthma, were selected and sent in the
summer to La Bourboule, France, for a six weeks' recuperative holiday.
Later in the year twelve London children, aged 8-14 years, also suffering from