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11
As I have reported to the Committee during the year, this is
particularly the case with regard to Enlarged Tonsils and Adenoids.
During the year, 197 children were re-examined who were found
to be suffering from these conditions, with the following results :—
Remedied, 44 ; improved, 26 ; no treatment obtained, 127.
It will be observed that only 35 3 per cent, of these children
had been treated. A low percentage of children treated will also
be noted in the table in the case of carious teeth and diseases of
the heart and circulation. The children in the former group are
the older children who do not come within the scope of the present
School Dental Scheme.
Some of this failure to obtain treatment may be attributed to
the ignorance or neglect of the parents, but much more is due to
the difficulties in the way of obtaining adequate treatment. A
large number of parents cannot afford to obtain such treatment
through private medical practitioners, and the local general hospitals
do not deal with more than a fraction of the cases. To obtain
treatment at one of the London general hospitals involves both
expense in travelling and considerable waste of time and is in
many cases refused on the ground that it is the duty of the local
authority to provide treatment for the school children within their
district. These difficulties are enhanced in cases of treatment
involving operation, where it is obviously most undesirable that
the patient should have to travel long distances in overcrowded
public vehicles.
For these reasons it seems to me that more facilities should be
provided by the local authority for the provision of treatment for
children in the district. Such provision is urgently needed in the
case of Enlarged Tonsils and Adenoids, but is also greatly to be
desired in regard to children suffering from physical defects, etc.
With regard to the treatment of Enlarged Tonsils, provisional
arrangements with the local hospitals are now under consideration
and will probably meet the case for the moment, but eventually
a more complete scheme will be necessary and in this connection the
direct treatment of cases by the local authority might very well be