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132
REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL SCHOOL DENTAL OFFICER
The year 1965 was a year of many changes, the principal one being the
change-over on 1st April when the Dental Service ceased to be under the
Middlesex County Council as Area No. 5, and became the service of the
new London Borough of Harrow, as comprised in the plan for the reorganisation
of the Greater London Government.
The Borough is also responsible for the dental care of the children at
Elmer's Court Special School in Lymington, Hampshire, where arrangements
have been made for a local dental surgeon to carry out inspection
and treatment under the National Health Service scale of fees, in a surgery
which had been fitted up in the school during the days of the Middlesex
County Council regime.
The difficulty in obtaining the services of full-time dental officers
was still an acute one, but the clinics were covered satisfactorily by the
employment of part-time officers where full-time ones were not available.
When we unfortunately lost the services of the full-time orthodontist, we
were able to engage two part-time orthodontists to keep the service going.
The staffing position at the end of December was:—
1 Chief Dental Officer
3 full-time Dental Officers
3 part-time Dental Officers
2 part-time Orthodontists
6 full-time Dental Surgery Assistants.
The clinic premises underwent certain changes. The oldest clinic which
was in the grounds of Roxeth Hill School and which was originally the
head teacher's house, built over a hundred years ago, was closed in August.
The schools served by this clinic were catered for by the Alexandra Avenue
Clinic until the new building in Northolt Road was ready for occupation
in September. This new clinic is very adequately fitted with the latest
equipment, including an x-ray machine. The Alexandra Avenue Clinic was
temporarily closed but subsequently re-opened for two sessions a week in
November to cater for the two schools in the immediate vicinity.
Provision was made in the estimates to replace the out-of-date equipment
at the Honeypot Lane Clinic with a modern chair and unit, including
x-ray facilities. When this is completed, all dental surgeries will be up to
modern standards.
Work proceeded during the year towards the completion of the dental
section of the new Tenby Road Clinic in Edgware. This will eventually
serve the schools in the eastern part of the Borough.
The majority of the school children in the Borough were inspected
once during the year in school.Where this was not entirely possible it was
due in part to staff changes and in part to changes in clinic premises.
The school inspections reveal that the majority of the children in Harrow
receive regular dental treatment, either from the family dentist under the