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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.
Care of the Feet
A limited chiropody service is provided by the local health authority
for children attending maintained schools, for nursing and expectant
mothers, and for children under school age. While these perhaps are
not the sections of the population who suffer most from conditions of
the feet needing this form of treatment, there is room for much useful
work to be done in dealing with them. Apart from this aspect, it is
hoped that the activities of the chiropodist will result in more attention
being given to this matter, and that steadily more will appreciate what
scope there is for preventing the development of disabling and painful
conditions.
Chest Clinics
The foundations of the tuberculosis service established some forty
years ago rested partly on the various forms of residential institution
for the reception of sufferers and, more especially on the preventive side,
on what were called tuberculosis dispensaries. The function of the
dispensary was to act as a receiving house and a centre for diagnosis,
as a clearing house and centre for observation, as a centre for curative
treatment, as a centre for the examination of contacts, as a centre for
after care and as an information bureau and educational centre. The
responsibility for providing the tuberculosis service was placed on the
Councils of Counties and County Boroughs. Under the National
Health Service Act not only the hospitals but other places providing
treatment passed from these authorities to the Ministry, so that since
1948 the tuberculosis dispensaries which are now more commonly known
as chest clinics have been administered by the Regional Hospital Boards.
In respect of their clinical duties the staff are engaged by the Boards,
but as the preventive side remains the responsibility of the local health
authorities, staff for this purpose are also engaged by them. Although
the basic functions of these clinics remain the same as when they were
first established, very much more is being done there now. Clinics are
fitted with X-rays and a range of treatment including A.P.T. refills is
carried out. Testing of tuberculin reactions and the use of B.C.G.,
antibiotics, and chemotherapy have widened the range of activities of
The clinics. The shortage of hospital accommodation after the war
demonstrated that many sufferers, who in other days would have been
admitted to institutions of one sort or another, could satisfactorily be
looked after at home.
The Chest Clinic serving most of this district is that at 199, Station
Road, Harrow (Tel. No. Harrow 1075). The physician in charge is
Dr. Grenville Mathers. Serving part of the district on the eastern side
is the Chest Clinic at the Edgware General Hospital (Tel. No. Edgware
4467)The physician in charge is Dr. Trenchard.