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(c). Minor Ailments and Diseases of the Skin.
The Minor Ailments Clinics have again proved to be a very active feature of the School
Medical Service, and here, as in other branches of our work, the results of an increasing school
population continue to be much in evidence. In September it was found necessary to open a
minor ailments treatment centre at the Cranford Temporary School to serve the growing area
in that part of the Borough.
The Clinics are open at 9 a.m. every week-day throughout the year for the treatment of
minor ailments at the following centres :—
Hounslow—94a, Bath Road.
Heston—The Village Hall.
Isleworth—Busch House, Busch Corner.
Cranford—Temporary School, High Street (this Treatment Centre will be transferred
to the new Cranford Junior School when it is ooened).
A Medical Officer attends the Clinics on the following days :—
Hounslow—Tuesdays and Fridays at 10 a.m.
Heston—Thursdays at 10.30 a.m.
Isleworth—Mondays at 10.30 a.m.
Cases are referred to the Clinics from school medical inspections, or are sent in by Head
Teachers, School Attendance Officers, and Health Visitors. The majority of the cases, however,
are sent in by Head Teachers, who doubtless realise the value of prompt treatment in maintaining
a good school attendance.
Since the middle of 1929 the Minor Ailments Clinics have been kept open during school
holidays (except such general holidays as Christmas Day, Bank Holidays, etc.), but there is
always a considerable drop in the attendance when schools are closed, which points to the fact
that, but for the vigilance of Teachers and Attendance Officers during term time, many of the
cases of minor ailments would go untreated and neglected.
Table IV, Group 1, on page 33 shows that 2,163 cases of minor ailments were treated
under the Authority's schemes. 2,146 of these were treated at the school clinics where they made
12,091 attendances during the year.
In addition to providing daily treatment for minor ailments, these clinics also serve as
centres for special examinations by medical officers, and during the year, 4,964 special examinations
and re-examinations were carried out.
Ringworm of the Scalp.
All children accepting treatment by the Authority are sent to St. John's Hospital for
Diseases of the Skin, Leicester Square, for X-ray treatment under an agreement made with this
hospital in January, 1935.
There have been seventeen cases under treatment by the Authority during the year, six
of which were infected prior to 1936.
Two of these (brother and sister) were old standing cases infected in 1934 in which the
original X-ray treatment failed to effect a cure.
Further X-ray treatment was refused and since January, 1935, these children have been
under other treatment at St. John's Hospital. In both cases the infection proved very resistant
to treatment—the boy cleared up in July of his year—but the girl is still infected.
Both these cases occurred during the troublesome epidemic (47 cases) in 1934 when many
of the cases took an abnormally long time to clear.
The loss of school attendance of these two' children has been serious—the Authority offered
to send them to a resident institution where they could be educated whilst treatment was proceeding,
but unfortunately the parents would not agree to the children leaving home.
Of the remaining fifteen cases, four were infected in December. 1935, whilst eleven were
new cases occurring during the year. All fifteen were successfully treated with one application
of X-rays at St. John's Hospital, the average time between X-ray and being passed as clear at
the cchool Wood Glass Clinic being fifty days.
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