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36
which the Report of Royal Commission has recently laid bare.
There is a Cottage Hospital which is unprovided with an outdepartment.
There are two Provident Dispensaries which might
meet the needs of two relatively small areas in the district, and
several private clubs. In addition to this the proximity of the
London hospitals enables advantage to be taken of the facilities
they afford, and they are used extensively for affections of the
eye, operative and other cases.
Nevertheless, the existing provision for medical treatment
is hopelessly inadequate to meet the needs of the district.
The tabulated results of investigation into cases of illness
coming to knowledge during the last six years, and published in
my Annual Reports, show that nearly one half of the cases of
illness occurring among school children go untreated.
The many thousands of cases investigated leave no doubt
as to the size and seriousness of the problem.
It is not that there is an insufficient supply of medical men
on the one hand, or any limit to the number of possible patients on
the other, that the skill and knowledge which is available is not
utilised in the cure of the cases in which attention is so urgently
needed.
The anomaly lies in the lack of any organised provision.
That such organised provision is an urgent necessity is becoming
increasingly appreciated. That the problem will be solved, no one
knowing the facts can doubt. It would be scandalous were so
grave a situation to continue. It is perhaps fortunate that there
are many competing schemes in the field to remedy the evil. But
the evil is so much greater than has been or is appreciated that
they do not receive the impetus to materialise that the urgency
of the case demands.
Pending statutory effect being given to the alternative
.ecommendations of the Majority or Minority Reports of the Royal