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"Where private practitioners desire to carry out this treatment
themselves, prophylactic material is supplied from the department free
of charge, but difficulty has been experienced in obtaining returns of
children who have been immunised privately.
Not all practitioners use the Government A.P.T. and therefore no
reliable estimate can be made through any check-up on material issues
from the department to practitioners. Owing to the demands of
national service, the remaining practitioners are heavily burdened and
it has not been found practicable to arrange with them for necessary
periodic returns of children so treated to be rendered.
WHOOPING COUGH.
In response to requests from many of the mothers attending at the
Child Welfare Centres, the Public Health Committee decided to offer
facilities for immunisation against whooping cough to all children in
the Borough providing their parents asked for the treatment and were
prepared to pay the cost of the prophylactic material used. The scheme
started in February, 1945, and by the end of the year 44 children had
been immunised and a further 11 had started, but not completed, the
course of injections.
The material used is Parke Davis Whooping Cough Vaccine—St.
Mary's Hospital preparation—the treatment consisting of four injections
of 1 c.c. at weekly intervals. At present the numbers of children
immunised are not sufficient to justify the formulation of conclusions
regarding the efficacy of the treatment in preventing whooping cough.
The fact that prophylactic inrioculations are being used to an increasing
extent by a number of Public Health Departments does suggest,
however, that experience is pointing to the value of the treatment in
reducing the virulence of attacks of whooping cough.
SCHOOL CLINICS.
The local education authority is the Surrey County Council. who
provide the medical services for the school children of the Borough.
VENEREAL DISEASES CLINICS.
The Surrey County Council is the responsible authority for
venereal diseases in the area and is a member of the London and
Home Counties Scheme. The arrangements provide for the free
diagnosis and treatment of these diseases at the Croydon General
Hospital, at clinics established at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.
Guildford, at the East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, and at hospitals under
the London and Home Counties Scheme. A further V.D. clinic has
been opened at St. Helier Hospital, Carshalton.
HOSPITALS.
Infectious Cases. Cases of infectious disease occurring in the
Borough are admitted to the Wandle Valley Joint Isolation Hospital.
Beddington Corner.
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