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20
The arrangements with chemists for the dispensing of prescriptions
on terms similar to those under the National Insurance
Act, have been continued.
It was found necessary in re-organising the work of the
Department to alter the days of the Maternity and Child Welfare
Clinics at Isleworth from Tuesday and Wednesday to Tuesday and
Friday. This resulted in a considerable drop in the attendance,
as Friday was not as popular a day as Wednesday, but the
attendances are steadily improving. In many ways the work can
be regarded as satisfactory and particularly so under the circumstances.
At the Council House the work has reached its limit of
expansion. Nothing further can be accomplished until adequate
accommodation can be provided. The attendance rises steadily
until the accommodation becomes seriously overcrowded, when
there follows a sharp drop caused apparently by the disinclination
of the parents to attend under such circumstances of overcrowding
and discomfort. After the drop, there is a gradual ri*e until the
conditon of discomfort again becomes serious when there is again
a sharp falling off in the attendance followed again by a rise until
the conditions again become seriously unsatisfactory. At Isleworth,
the premises are gloomy, inconvenient, smoky and difficult to
ventilate. Since the Upper Hall has been re-decorated, and
constantly let, the noise overhead caused by the necessary shifting
of furniture in preparation of entertainments, is an additional
disturbing factor. In the interests of national economy every
endeavour is made to carry on under the circumstances.
Personally, I regard the Maternity and Child Welfare work
as. the most important of the Council's Public Health activities.
It will not be long, in my opinion, before much of the importance
attached to the medical supervision of the school child will pass
to the child before it enters school. We more and more come to
realise the importance of dealing with the beginnings of diseases
in early childhood rather than the remedying of the defects during
the school life, which have become thoroughly established As a
business proposition to the community, the Maternity and Child
Welfare work, is, in my opinion, the best investment they can