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In ordinary cases the patients are brought home by the Barking Ambulance,
the Public Health Department being notified by telephone of the operations
performed. The School Nurses visit all cases the day of their return home, to see
that the patient's condition is satisfactory and to give appropriate advice for the
after-care. Special cases are retained in Hospital for as long as the Surgeon considers
necessary, the expense being met by the Authority.
On recovery, and before returning to School, the patients' throats are examined
by one of your Medical Officers at the Minor Ailments Clinic.
In Group III of Table IV on page 136 will be found a complete analysis of the
ascertained results of the treatment of nose and throat defects.
From time to time I have pointed out to you my private opinion that the
surgical treatment of tonsils and adenoids with its hemorrhage and possible shock
is by no means the simple operation that many people imagine it is, and I think that
as time goes on we shall find larger and larger numbers of cases being retained at
Queen Mary's Hospital. I do believe that the time is ripe for Local Authorities so
to subsidise hospitals which undertake this work, that they may be in a position
to build and equip sufficient wards so that every case can be taken in at least a night
before and be retained for at least two days after the operation. If it should be
impossible to do this at ordinary voluntary hospitals it should be possible for such
a hospital for Extra Metropolitan cases to be built on an economic basis, although
of course not so cheaply as it is done today in our voluntary hospitals, where the
fees paid only represent a part of the actual cost.
(f) Ear Disease and Defective Hearing.— Ordinary cases of ear disease and defects
of hearing are dealt with medically at your clinics. The natural extension of your
service would be the appointment of an aural surgeon to hold a special clinic.
This natural development has not taken place in Barking because the proximity of
Barking to the large London hospitals has made the question less pressing than it
otherwise would have been. The Corporation has already an Aural Surgeon in
attendance, when necessary, at the Barking Hospital, where of course it is mostly
children who are seen by him. The question arises as to if and whether the time has
come when an aural clinic run by an aural surgeon of consultant rank should not be
held on similar lines to the eye clinic. I myself am much in favour of this
proposition because I believe that setting up such a clinic will in time reduce the very
large number of surgical operations which are carried out on tonsils and adenoids
of children.