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24
Crippling Defects and Orthopaedics.—The work carried out
during the year in question has followed closely that of the previous
year.
In my last Annual Report I said that the question of the
provision of extra service in orthopaedics was intimately linked
up with the extension of the medical services as a whole, and that
although highly desirable, I was not in that Report prepared to
advise the inauguration of any extra service until the general
extension had been undertaken.
It is now, however, my privilege to be able to say that these
general extensions are about to take place and that therefore i
seriously urge you to increase your orthopaedic work.
In the first place, whereas the services of an orthopaedic
nurse are available only for three days a week, they should be
made available for every day in the week ; and in the second place,
arrangements should be made for extending the present clinic
accommodation.
This can be done either by taking in an adjoining classroom
or alternatively by building in the precincts of the school.
The fact that such buildings, perhaps of a temporary nature,
are likely to be built for class purposes, suggests that they could
be built so that they could later be used either as an Orthopaedic
Clinic or to house the present manual instruction class, which would
make this classroom adjoining the clinic available for clinic
purposes.
The lack of co-ordination between various hospitals interested
in orthopaedic work is still a disadvantage to the work as a whole.
We do what we can to a certain extent by correspondence, but as
I said last year, the time is overdue for a conference between all the
hospitals who are engaged in orthopaedic work and Local Authorities
and others who are otherwise interested financially in this work.