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injuries, skin infections and minor defects of eye or
ear. The number of attendances is falling and most
sessions now take no more than 30 minutes.
2. School consultation clinics
These are staffed by a medical officer and regular
sessions are held at the various clinic premises. Parents
are free to take their children for advice on any
condition and pupils may be referred by head
teachers, school nurses etc and these sessions also
provide facilities for the follow-up of conditions
found at periodic and special inspections. Where
active treatment is required, the pupils are referred to
their own doctor or specialist clinics and most of the
work done by the medical officer is advisory, educational
or supportive.
3. Ophthalmic clinics
The vision of entrants to school is tested during
their first year in school and this testing is repeated
at ages 7, 11 and 15 years. Where an eye disease,
squint or a defect of sight is found parents may use
the facilities of our ophthalmic clinics where refraction
is carried out by ophthalmic surgeons. A total of
1,894 cases were seen at these clinics during the year
and spectacles were prescribed for 833 pupils.
The examination of the vision of spastic and other
children with severe physical handicap requires
special care and an ophthalmic surgeon visits Martindale
School for the Physically Handicapped once a
month during school term. Some of these pupils also
need special training to make the best use of their
eyes and for this purpose an orthoptist attends the
school for one session each week.
The Council provides a second pair of glasses for
those children who are certified by the ophthalmic
surgeon as likely to suffer damage to their eyesight if
they had to be without glasses for any period.
4. Orthopaedic clinics
These clinics are staffed by orthopaedic surgeons
provided by the Regional Hospital Board and by
physiotherapists employed by the Council. A total of
1,090 children were seen by the orthopaedic surgeons
and treatment was given to 375 by the
physiotherapists.
A physiotherapist attends three times a week at the
Busch House (open air) School to teach and supervise
breathing exercises in children suffering from asthma,
bronchitis etc.
5. Speech therapy clinics
These are staffed by speech therapists employed by
the Council. Regular sessions are held on clinic
premises but where the number of pupils requiring
treatment warrants it and accommodation is available,
arrangements are made for the therapist to attend at
the school. During the year 502 pupils were given
speech therapy.
6. Asthma and allergy clinic
This clinic is held weekly and provides treatment
and supervision for children suffering from asthma
and hay fever. During the year 116 cases were dealt
with.
7. Hearing clinic

The school medical officers saw 156 children who
failed the test with a view to securing any necessary
treatment or supervision and 20 of these were referred
to the hearing clinic. A further 59 children were
referred to the hearing clinic by medical officers.
When the hearing clinic was started in 1957 it served
the western half of Middlesex but it now serves the
London Boroughs of Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow
and Richmond but children from other areas are seen
if they are candidates for admission to the school for
the deaf or to the classes for the partially hearing.
The clinic is staffed by a consultant otologist
provided by the Regional Hospital Board and by a
principal medical officer, an assistant medical officer,
a senior educational psychologist, two teachers of the
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