View report page

The appointment of an Ophthalmic Surgeon has been found advisable, and
those cases referred from Infant Welfare Centres to the Ophthalmic Clinic will in
future be directly under his care.
33
Although our figures in Barking are too small in themselves to warrant a
considered opinion, the similar figures throughout the country tell the same story
of this high mortality rate among illegitimate children. The whole question bristles
with difficulties of which the purely medical ones are by no means the greatest.
Those people who are interested in the social and other sides of the question must
deal with it, for where we have such a high mortality rate it is only fair to assume
that there is a generally lowered resistance of a large number of these children to
the disabilities which are common to infants.
(k) Tonsils and .Adenoids.—Children who are found to require surgical treatment
for enlarged tonsils are in most eases sent to Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford,
with whom you have a scheme for treatment; they are sometimes sent to other
hospitals. It is to be noted that these children are seen by a surgeon for his
opinion as to whether surgical treatment is necessary, so that they are seen by at
least two medical practitioners before the operation is performed. I have
commented elsewhere upon the desirability of looking upon this treatment of
tonsils and adenoids as more than a minor operation and I confidently believe that
the practice will grow for these children to be retained in hospital after the operation,
for at least two or three days, and I hope the custom will eventually be that they
will be admitted to hospital a day before the operation so that they may settle down
before going to the operating theatre.

(m) Ophthalmic Clinic.—As with other disabilities, every effort is made to
remedy ophthalmic defects as early as possible.
The following table shows the
number of mothers and children who have been treated :—
No. treated.
Mothers
1
Mothers and toddlers
11
Toddlers (under 5 years of age)
14