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(e) Minor Ailments.
Table Ila. (page 155), shows types of defects discovered,
while Table IV., Group 1., gives details of
treatments carried out at the Treatment Clinics.
The large increase in the number treated, and the
greater use made of the clinics during the past few years
has called for additional medical staffing. The establishment
of the South Clinic at Princes Plain has fully
justified its erection. The statistics show that approximately
2,500 children passed through the minor ailment
clinics in a year, and that these children required 9,500
medical examinations by the medical staff, and 8,700
treatments by the school nurses; thus one can visualise the
amount of work carried on, and the benefit that must
result from this supervision and treatment of the child
under 14 years of age. These figures do not take into
account the work of the special clinics.
Table Ila. which tabulates the diseases for which the
patients received advice or treatment at the clinics during
the year, is instructive in that it shows that the 2,500
individual children who attended the clinics suffered from
4,048 defects requiring treatment, and 636 requiring
observation—approximately two defects per child.the
main defects are skin diseases, diseases of the nose and
throat, and defects, such as catarrhal infections, which are
not specifically classified. A clinic acts as a clearing
house for patients; those that require domiciliary treatment
are referred to their own doctor, those requiring
hospital investigation are referred to the local hospitals
or to the London General Hospitals, and those that can
be treated through the special clinics of the School Medical
Service.
(d) Visual Defects and External Eye Disease.
In Table IV., Group II. (page 1 (161) will be found
statistics for the year.
Of the 1,815 children inspected at the routine medical
inspections at schools, 9 per cent, were found to be suffering
from defective vision requiring corrective treatment. This
figure for Bromley children is a fair ly consistent one over
the years, and one feels that little is being done to investigate
the cause. It is hoped that the provision of a Measles