[Report 1963] / Medical Officer of Health, Cheltenham Borough.

  • Cheltenham (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1963
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1963] / Medical Officer of Health, Cheltenham Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/92 (page 47)
    SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER 1963 To the Chairman and Members of the School Medical Sub-Committee Madam Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, The demands on the School Health Service continue to increase along with the annual rise in the school population. The Service covers many aspects of the health of the school child, as will be seen in the Report, and much of the work is of a routine nature, producing no spectacular results, but showing a standard of school health which would not have been considered possible when the School Health Service started half a century ago. There have been no epidemics of any kind, in fact the incidence of infectious disease is almost insignificant, even measles notification being down by more than half compared with last year. There was only one case of tuberculosis and it is encouraging to see a still further increase in the number of children presenting themselves for vaccination against this disease. After ten years of routine vaccination of 13-year-old school children we are now seeing a substantial reduction in the disease in young adults among whom it was formerly most prevalent. All the other vaccination and immunisation procedures continue week by w^eek and it is only because of this that infectious disease has ceased to be a serious problem. It wdll only remain so provided there is no relaxation in the application of these preventive measures, coupled wdth the whiling co-operation of parents and teachers. A very close and happy liaison is alw'ays maintained whth the family doctors and the hospitals, in fact it is only as a result of this co-operation and team w'ork that w'e are achieving together such splendid results. Again, much time w'as devoted to the special examination of those children wLo because of mental or physical defect require special educational treat- ment. It is now much more widely known how much those children can be helped and as a result ascertainment is becoming more complete and effective. More accommodation is also becoming available both locally in the form of our new' secondary school for the educationally subnormal, Brookfield, opened during the year, and nationally in the provision of more residential schools. Unfortunately we still have some difficulty in placing some children who suffer from more than one defect. In order to deal with another distressing and common handicap among school children, an Enuresis Clinic was started during the year in the school clinic, in conjunction with Dr Doherty and the staff of the Child Guidance Clinic. This has been a successful venture and we have recently had a welcome offer of further assistance from Mr P. F. Boreham, f.r.c.s. at the General Hospital to whom, w'ith the approval of the family doctor, we can refer children who may require surgical investigation. Audiometry is now firmly established as a routine procedure in the schools and is proving invaluable in detecting at an early age the child with incipient deafness. We are indebted to the County Audiometrician for her services and to Mr G. N. Barker, f.r.c.s. at the General Hospital to whom, with the approval of the family doctor, we refer children, w'hen necessary, for consultation and treatment. In the school dental service we have been fortunate in having, for part of the year at least, a full complement of dental officers, plus a dental health education officer. Much useful work has been achieved especially in the