[Report 1946] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City.

  • Leeds (England). City Council.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Development. Miss J. D. Browell, masseuse attached to Potternewton School for Physically Handicapped Children, resigned in consequence of her marriage. Miss E. M. Watts has been appointed to fill the vacancy, temporarily. Nurse L. Moody, who has given loyal service to the Authority for twenty-two years, retired in April, and Nurse A. Hayes resigned her temporary appointment in January. Temporary appointments of Nurse M. Banks and Nurse M. O’Meara were made in May to fill these vacancies. Early in the year the agreements with the General Infirmary, St. James’s Hospital and the Public Dispensary for the treatment of school children referred by the School Health Service were completed and approved by the Ministry of Education. So during practically the whole of 1946 the cost of all treatment of school children referred to these hospitals by the Authority and either treated as out-patients or admitted to hospital has been borne by the Education Authority. For in-patients either in the General Infirmary or St. James’s Hospital the Authority pays the ascertained daily bed charge for every day the child is retained in hospital. For out-patients at the Infirmary or Dispensary a nominal fee is paid for children who receive no treatment there but are referred to the family doctor or are kept under observation at the hospital. For children treated in the out-patient departments of these hospitals payment is made according to a scale varying with the type of treatment required ; this payment is made when the treatment has been completed. During the year 1,751 children have been treated as out-patients and 608 as in-patients, at a cost to the Authority of £8,687 3s. 7d. The arrangements with the hospitals have worked very smoothly and we are indebted to the hospital staffs, and especially to the Lady Almoners, for their co-operation in the working of the scheme. In each case imports have come back to the School Health Service of the diagnosis, treatment given and final result. These reports are of great value in making our records of each child’s medical history as complete as possible. In this connection it is obviously desirable that the School Medical Officers should be brought into more intimate relations with the actual treatment of the children referred to hospitals by them than they have been in the past. At present the School Medical Officer examines a child and refers him for treatment, but may not see the child again until treatment has been completed.