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13
no doubt that in many areas every school should be built on open-air
lines, yet the majority of schools are not so built and in many cases
cannot be so built. There is further to be considered the great
advantage of having the delicate children, unfitted for ordinary
school life, educated together in one place where they can receive the
special care, observation and treatment which is impossible in an
elementary school, where normal children form the majority of those
in attendance.
The School Medical Service is likely to be further developed by a
remedial exercises clinic (which I have recommended for some years),
and a complete orthopaedic scheme.
The appointment of an additional dentist will enable more
propaganda work to be carried on in the schools.
The Maternity and Child Welfare work is still making progress.
In the year 1919 when I was appointed Medical Officer of Health,
there were 5,643 attendances at the various Welfare Centres; last
year there were 33,590. The Maternity Home and Ante-Natal
Clinics have proved so successful that extension® are necessary. A
surgical ward for difficult maternity cases occurring in the district
is required at the Maternity Home, and the appointment of additional
district midwives is also necessary.
The time has arrived when the Council should consider the
establishment of permanent premises in certain parts of the town
which will serve school medical purposes as well as for those
connected with the Maternity and Child Welfare services.
Further extensions at the Isolation Hospital are at present
being considered by the Public Health Committee.
The staff of the department has carried out excellent work;
when it is remembered that the Health Visitors alone paid over
21,000 visits to various houses for Infant Welfare and School