London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1955
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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various speech therapy classes. New admissions during the year amounted to 628 and
473 pupils were discharged as either improved or cured. 259 pupils, most of whom
have shown some improvement, ceased to attend the classes for various reasons. The
increased activity indicated was made possible by additional staff engaged during the
year, the total of which on 31st December stood at 13 full-time speech therapists
(including one senior therapist), 3 part-time and 7 sessional therapists.
Enuresis
At the Westminster Hospital (All Saints Urological Centre) the number of new applications
for enuretic school pupils has been decreasing for some time, owing to the
provision of other facilities elsewhere. Two sessions a week for school pupils were held
and the number of new cases seen throughout the year was 255 (289). The waiting
period has averaged three weeks and has not risen above six weeks. There was a total
attendance of 1,555 (1,759) and 91 (137) children were discharged as cured. A number
of former pupils who failed to re-attend were, necessarily, removed from the current
fde, but a home visit from a care committee worker often resulted in a resumption of
attendance.
Enuresis is also dealt with at a number of other hospitals in London, and, in addition,
is among the conditions dealt with at the Council's own special investigation clinics.
Following a slight but steady decline during the past three years, there has this year been an abrupt fall in the number of cases of juvenile rheumatism referred for admission to Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton.
The indication that acute rheumatism is become progressively less prevalent is not
alone sufficient to account for this fall and further factors therefore must be looked for
to account for admissions being less than half those for the previous year whereas the
new cases at the rheumatism advisory centres still seem to follow the previous trend.
It may be that some patients have been admitted direct to Queen Mary's Hospital
without going through the Rheumatism Scheme Register and that more patients are
being diverted to the Special Rheumatism Unit of the Canadian Red Cross Hospital,
Taplow.
Although the total numbers have fallen, the percentage of children with cardiac
involvement has risen and this is seen mainly amongst the boys (an increase from
28.1 per cent. to 44.8 per cent.) whereas the percentage of girls has fallen slightly
(31.5 per cent. to 27.8 per cent.). Aortic disease was again more evident amongst the
boys.
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