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The treatment of many of these conditions saved the patients wearisome attendances
at London hospitals and in many cases hospital attendance would have been very difficult
for the patients affected because of the considerable areas of skin diseased and the resultant
difficulty in travelling.
The increase in attendances for the treatment of vermin is possibly due to the fact
that in July routine inspection for cleanliness in schools came under the aegis of the Public
Health Department, a greater number of children subsequently being cleansed at the cleansing
station by arrangement with the Middlesex County Council instead of being treated on
school premises.
Ambulance Service.
During 1945 the ambulance vehicles were stationed at Salisbury Road Civil Defence
Depot, and were manned by the members of the casualty service. Emergency and extra
calls were covered by the use of the Civil Defence ambulances and these became increasingly
necessary as the year went on because of the greater demand from the public for this service.
All users of the civil ambulance service are expected to produce a medical certificate
to justify the free use of the ambulance.
With the reduction of the Civil Defence Casualty Service in the imminent future,
the Borough Council had to consider the provision of civil ambulance facilities as completely
separate from the Casualty Service and from the Fire Service. A tentative scheme for the
provision of sufficient civil ambulance vehicles and staff was proposed. The new arrangements
came into force on the 31st December, 1944.
Details of the work of this service are as follows :—
Table B.
Ordinary cases removed to hospital or home 4,894
Accidents 430
Total 5,324
Miles travelled in the period 50,176
Poor Law Medical Relief.
The Relieving Officer issued 93 Medical Orders during 1945. Some of these
cases also received outdoor relief or institutional treatment.
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE
Health Visiting.
This year arrangements for health visiting were altered considerably in the middle of
the year, because of the transfer of school medical duties to the Public Health Department.
Two additional health visitors were appointed.
In order to obtain a complete sequence of visiting throughout the child's life, it was
desirable that the districts should be so divided that each health visitor should be responsible
for visiting expectant mothers, infants and school children in designated areas, and that
they should, as far as possible, conduct clinics to which the various members of these families
would be attending, and therefore the Borough was divided into eight districts and one health
visitor allotted to each area. Each health visitor was therefore responsible in her own area
for all health visiting work, including infectious disease, visiting of expectant mothers, visits
and re-visits to infants and school children, following-up of defaulters from dental clinics,
and the cleansing station, and for special clinics and for the investigation of infectious
disease in schools.
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