[Report 1951] / School Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1951] / School Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/108 (page 4)
    GENERAL INTRODUCTION. This REPORT is the forty-second since the establishment of medical inspection in Glasgow in the year 1909, the twenty-first since the transfer to the Health Department in 1930, and the thirteenth since the form of report desired by the Department of Health for Scotland was recast in 1939. A feature of the session was the apparent return to popularity of the school clinic after two years of partial decline following inauguration of the National Health Service. The diminishing attendances at the various school clinics had been ascribed to the novel situation m which many parents found themselves of having to choose between obtaining free medical treatment for their children through the school hea 11 service or from their new “private” doctor—a choice which was considered to have been exercised frequently to the detriment of the former. It seems probable that more parents are now beginning to realise the benefits accruing from the interrelationship of the educational an health organisations ; that the welfare of their children from entry and during school life is taken care of, even to the extent of providing treatment for the restoration of health under the aegis of the school health service, whether the ailment is of a type which can be dealt with at an ordinary clinic, or of a nature requiring specialist treatment, or is perhaps a defect which can more readily be cured by a sojourn in hospital or other institution. Moreover, the number of inquiries and requests from medical practitioners outside local authority service, from almoners of various public institutions and from other sources interested in child health, indicates that the extensive treatment facilities available through the school health service are becoming more widely known. This co-operation with other branches of the health and social services, private and public, is of inestimable value in co-ordinating the efforts of all imbued with the common aim—-the continued well-being of the children-an aim in furtherance of which the school health service takes no small part. The scheme of work was broadly similar to that obtaining m the previous year. Additional information was, however, procured by school medical officers at routine inspection details of the v accinal state and the housing conditions of each child examined. Several changes in personnel occurred during the school session and increased work caused some modification of the programme. General inspection