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Apart from the sessions when the dental officers are examining
children in the schools, treatment sessions are held every week-day,
morning and afternoon.
The school children treated there are those found, as the result of
routine dental inspection of children at the schools, to need treatment.
The only ones who can attend without a previous appointment are those
who are referred by the head teachers of the schools, the children attending
under the arrangements made for the urgent or emergency treatment
of those needing such attention for some cause such as toothache.
Most of the children under five and the expectant and the nursing
mothers are referred by the medical officers at the clinics which they have
attended. The Health Authority dental service is, however, available to
ante-natal mothers who do not attend the local clinics, but who are
referred for treatment by the medical practitioners under whose care they
are, appointments being made through the Area Office.
The changes brought about by the coming into operation of the
National Health Service Act in July, 1948, very seriously affected the
dental services provided by local authorities. The situation has somewhat
eased, though probably no authority has the dental staff necessary
for providing a full service to those in the priority groups. This district
has been more fortunate than many, and in fact the complement of
dental officers is now what it was before the war when each child attending
school could be examined every year. This very desirable state of
affairs does not now exist because of the larger number of children
attending the maintained schools (partly because of the raising of the
school age, partly because of the larger population of the district),
because of the increased proportion of time devoted to the teeth
of expectant and nursing mothers and of children under school age, and
also because as a result of the years when there were fewer dental officers
available, the average standard of a child's mouth is worse and each
child therefore needs that much more treatment. At present, there are
dental officers occupying almost to the full each dental surgery. In
addition, a number of evening sessions are held by some of the dental
officers. Although then it must be a long time before the pre-war standard
of an annual examination can be reached, the position to-day is a
marked improvement on the time when at some of the schools, at least,
the interval between inspections was two years.
The orthodontic surgeon is working full-time at the Marlborough
Hill Clinic.
Phvsio-Therapy Treatment.
The Harrow Hospital maintains a physical treatment centre at the
Car Park Building, Station Road, Harrow (Tel. No.: Harrow 0926). The
medical director, Dr. G. C. Farrington, attends at fixed sessions to see
all new cases. A wide range of treatment is carried out by the staff under
the supervision of Miss M. Lock. The orthopaedic surgeon, Mr. K. I.
Nissen, attends once a month.