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arrangements it is remarkable that some of the highly infectious
diseases should not have received medical treatment, and should
remain to be discovered in my office. And a very pitiable feature
of the work is the difficulty which average parents (earning under
£1 10s. Od. a week) have to get constant and proper medical help
for their children. Some of the parents have brought me budgets
showing how their weekly money is spent, which arc worthy of the
highest commendation and which leave no margin for the payment
for medical assistance.
Although there are cheap trains to London for 3d. return fare
the unfortunate persons have to start before 7.30 a.m. for the hospitals;
many of which do not open until 1.30 p.m. Frequently young
children have to be taken as well as the patient because the mother
cannot afford to pay any one to take care of them at home, and
the whole party wander about the streets for about four hours, until
they are admitted. I have suggested to many of them the advisability
of using the Br sh Museum or similar institutions as a waiting room.
This method of obtaining medical assistance is quite commonly
resorted to in cases of whooping cough and other infectious diseases.
I have visited various out-patient departments in London and have
noticed the want of continuity of treatment which takes place there.
I certainly think that some method of dealing with such cases should
be provided in the district. We are rightly proud of our great voluntary
hospitals but we have long outgrown them as a means for the
universal provision of medical assistance.
A very persistent attempt has been made to utilise the Poor Law
Medical Service to the utmost, and I cannot speak too highly of the
care and attention which has been displayed by the District Medical
Officer in dealing with those cases which he has attended to. He very
properly does not consider himself called upon to undertake operations
or the provision of spectacles in connection with this work, at
the same time there are an increasing number of cases which need
the assistance of the Medical Specialist. In some cases parents cannot
provide the few pence to enable them to take children to hospitals,
especially for repeated attendances. The Clerk to the Guardians
states his authority cannot legally pay their fares to and from
hospitals—to meet two of these cases the Guardians admitted the
children into the Workhouse for about a month, and sent them by
train backwards and forwards to Moorfields Eye Hospital, and then
provided the glasses—this was a very expensive arrangement, and
interfered with the child's education.
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