[Report 1944] / School Medical Officer of Health, Devon County Council.

  • Devon (England). County Council.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1944] / School Medical Officer of Health, Devon County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    schoolchildren, was continued throughout 1944, following the short, unsatisfactory trial of curtailed inspection made in 1940. Because 6f the increased demands upon the time of the Medical and Nursing staff, caused by Nursery and other Maternity and Child Welfare work, diphtheria prophylaxis, distribution of infants’ anti-gas respirators, etc., it has only just been possible to maintain the standard of work, indeed, in some areas of the County the frequency of “follow-up” examinations has had to be slightly reduced. “ELEMENTARY” AND “SECONDARY” SCHOOLS. Sincr the nature and range of School Medical Services provided for Primary and Secondary schoolchildren are now, with a few minor exceptions, identical in this County, it has been decided to rearrange the subject matter of this report, and not to separate into more or less watertight compartments the sections dealing with Elementary and Secondary schoolchildren as was prac- ticed hitherto. MEDICAL INSPECTION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLCHILDREN. The number of Medical Examinations (“ inspections ’’) carried out during the year in the various categories is shown in Table IA Primary and Secondary (Periodical Medical Inspection) and Table IB Primary and Secondary (Special and “Follow-up” Inspections as distinct from the periodical ones). The number of periodical examinations of children in prescribed age-groups shows a con- siderable drop in comparison with 1943. This is not due to there being less children to examine, for as already mentioned, the number of evacuees during the second part of the year was doubled. Throughout the County, however, the Clinical School Medical Officers have as “ Assistant County Medical Officers ” been spending a gradually increasing proportion of their time on maternity and child welfare work and in supervising the health of children attending war-time nurseries, a report concerning which will be found in my Annual Report of the County Medical Officer. In several of the Medical Officers’ areas, however, there have been fairly long periods during which there has been no inspection carried out owing to the considerable difficulty of obtaining replacement staff after resignations. There is also an increasing thoroughness in the actual examination, so that less exeminations now can be carried out in a given time. The total of 13,999 elementary and secondary school children fully examined in the age groups out of a total of 57,005 local and evacuee elementary and secondary school children is still a higher proportion than has been possible to examine in most other areas under present conditions. Nevertheless, the situation must not be regarded with complacency, for the periodical medical examination of the children is the foundation of the modern School Medical Service, with its positively con- structive outlook, while the special examination of children suspected of defects, outside the periodical examinations, should be looked on in the nature of “ running repairs.” As regards special examinations, the figures, which include examinations at school clinics as well as at schools, show a marked increase, 16,802, as against 12,662 last year, while the number of children examined for “follow-up ” purposes (also including children examined at clinics), 24,106, was about 6,000 less than last year.