[Report 1925] / School Medical Officer of Health, Wolverhampton County Borough.

  • Wolverhampton (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1925] / School Medical Officer of Health, Wolverhampton County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/36 (page 10)
    The amount paid by parents Clinic treatment during 1925 was £25 in contributions for Eye 8s. Od. Spectacles.—The Committee’s contract with Opticians for the supply of spectacles at reduced rates to necessitous cases fell last year to Messrs. Blackham. 175 pairs of spectacles were thus supplied by the Committee at a total cost of £28 13s. 9d., of which number 91 pairs were supplied on a contributory basis, the parents’ contributions amounting to £6 18s. 6d., the remaining 84 being supplied free. The total contributions of parents in respect of Eye treat¬ ment and Spectacles amounted therefore to £32 6s. 6d. (g)—Dr. J. M. Browne directs particu ar attention to what he characterises as the present unsatisfactory and inadequate treat¬ ment of ‘Ear’ affections. In a written memorandum dealing first with ‘ascertainment’ and later with ‘treatment’ he states : “It is impossible to make more than a very cursory examination of the ears in the course of Routine Inspection ; and as symptoms are frequently only discernible when appropriate apparatus and lighting ar¬ rangements are available—apparatus needing special experience to use effectively—it is not improbable that a certain number of such cases es¬ cape detection. Personally, in every case where a parent or representative attends, I make a routine enquiry as to any sign of deafness, and utilise the sense of smell to detect the characteristic odour of chronic otorrhoea. I have detected several unsuspected cases by the last method. Such examination is, however, necessarily a very rough and ready method, and cases may easily pass undetected. Apart from the ascertainment of such cases, the question of ade¬ quate treatment is an urgent one. When seeking medical advice for these defects, the parents have before them the choice of either going to the Ear Specialist at the General Hospital, or consulting one of the general practitioners. A hospital note is only ‘good’ for three visits. It is, however, only in very rare cases that a case of either deafness or of ear discharge can be cured in such a short period of treatment. A chronic case cannot possibly be cured in such a short time. Consequently, in cases that over¬ come the initial difficulty of securing a hospital note and do go to the hos¬ pital, there is nearly always a break in the continuity of treatment, and, as the consequence, frequently no ultimate good results from treatment. There are numerous cases of chronic otorrhoea amongst the elementary school children that illustrate these facts.