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108
containing iron were also prescribed. Nursery class children attend during the
ordinary school hours of primary schools, hut nursery school children attend from
8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. and have breakfast (when necessary), dinner and tea, and
two-thirds of a pint of milk daily in addition to the other supplements supplied to
the nursery class children.
At the end of the year there were 20 maintained day nursery schools with accommodation
for 1,220 children from 2 to 5 years and five aided day nursery schools
with accommodation for 230 children.
School nurses attended nursery classes and schools daily and each child was
examined every term by a school doctor.
There was a total of 16,276 children under five years of age on the day school
rolls, 14,126 being in the Council's schools and 2,150 in voluntary or aided schools.
DENTAL SERVICES
The Council's Chief Dental Officer, Mr. Wm. Ritchie Young, V.R.D., F.D.S.,
R.C.S.(Eng.), reports as follows:—
In 1951 perhaps the most important development in the Council's dental services
was the adoption of the agreed Whitley Council scales of remuneration for wholetime
dental officers serving with Local Authorities, although it is still too early to
assess the effect of these scales on recruitment to the service.
During the year, efforts were continued to prevent still further loss of ground
and the 1950 staff figures were almost exactly maintained. On 1st April, 1951,
the London Executive Council took over the administration of their Part IV service
in the three health centres at Shoreditch, Bermondsey and Finsbury.
In the Council's Dental Services (Education Act, 1944 and Part III of the National
Health Service Act, 1946) a staff of approximately fifty dental officers continued
to deal with numbers which would have been completely overwhelming but for the
system of control of patients appointments brought into force in 1950. Treatment
was perforce in many cases ameliorative only, and in few of the cases of completed
treatment was any revisional treatment possible. It is appreciated that without
full and complete treatment followed by revisional treatment at least annually, full
preventive dental care is not possible. The ameliorative and haphazard treatment
given during 1951 cannot be regarded as satisfactory but was the best possible in the
circumstances prevailing, and at least prevented a great deal of pain and oral sepsis.
Dental inspections in schools—the basis of a proper dental care programmeunfortunately
declined still further in number during the year.
As in the three preceding years, tables of work carried out are shown under the
headings of "School Dental Service" and "Maternity and Child Welfare Dental
Service."