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treatment is provided. The number of visits paid during the
year by the Visitation Officer in the work of following up defects
found at medical inspection has been 1,724.
7.—ARRANGEMENTS FOR TREATMENT.
The normal procedure is to recommend all parents of children,
found to require medical treatment, to obtain the necessary treatment
privately from the family doctor or at hospital. Where the household
circumstances are such as to make it impossible to obtain
treatment privately, treatment is provided for certain types of
defect under arrangements made by the Education Committee.
Thus treatment is provided at the School Clinic for minor ailments,
dental defects, and defects of vision, of hearing and of speech.
Tonsils and adenoids are dealt with and ultra-violet light treatment
provided at the North Middlesex Hospital, and ultra-violet light
treatment, and X-ray treatment for ringworm at the Royal Northern
Hospital.
(а) Minor Ailments.
Seven hundred and seventy-five children were treated at the
Clinic for minor ailments, these comprising mainly, septic conditions
of the skin, minor injuries, inflammatory conditions of the ears and
eyes, and other similar conditions which tend to receive little
attention at home, but may if neglected give rise to ill-health in
the child.
(b) Tonsils and Adenoids.
Only eight children were operated on under the Committee's
scheme during the year, for enlarged tonsils and adenoids, while a
further nine were dealt with privately at home or in hospital. This
is much the lowest number of cases dealt with by operation for
many years, although the number has been falling steadily for the
past seven years. It is probable that formerly there was a tendency
to treat many cases by operation which might have responded
successfully to less drastic measures, while the practice today is to
recommend operation only in those cases where it is obvious that
the condition of the throat is definitely injuring the child's health.
(c) Visual Defects.
The number of children dealt with by Dr. Boden at the Eye
Clinic was 660, 191 of these being new cases. 278 had spectacles
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