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82
advice and treatment, and that during times of economic
stress the public services are always more in demand,
but I am convinced that although this factor may be a
reason, it is not the main reason. The School Medical
Service is in demand because it is an effective service,
and one that has proved its value to the parents and to
the nation as a whole. There will always be the antisocialist,
and I am not in any way referring to tie
political side of the question, but public opinion is
to-day more and more democratic in action, and the care
of the physical welfare of the child has become a national
responsibility whatever the political creed of our rulers.
However, there is to me this danger that we are extending
the health services into the sphere of treatment at
the expense of prevention. The 1929 Act encourages
this by the placing of the Poor Law medical treatment
under the Health authorities of the counties and county
boroughs. It will be agreed that, when a local health
authority undertakes the treatment of an individual at
the expense of the community, there is a danger that
the demand for the maintenance of physiological health
will be lost in the popular cry for the treatment of the
disease established.
Reverting to the summaried figures for 1931, the
total number of individual children coming under medical
examination was 3,241, of whom 1,416 were examined
at school and 1,825 at the Clinic. This called for no
less than 6,772 medical examinations in the year, a figure
which alone must indicate the extent of medical supervision
of the elementary school child in Bromley. The
special services such as Eye Clinic, Tonsil and Adenoid
Clinic, Orthopsedic Clinic and Dental Clinic are, not
included in the above figures, except where they have
been previously examined before being passed into the
special clinic. Two hundred and two individual children
attended the Eye Clinic, 215 the Orthopaedic Clinic, 329
the Tonsil and Adenoid Clinic, and 2,386 the Dental
Clinic. These figures are reported on in detail later in
the report, but given in broad outline they must give an
impression of the work performed by your staff.
A problem at present before us is the rapid increase
of population of the Borough, and of housing which is