[Report 1959] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cambridgeshire County Council.

  • Cambridgeshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1959
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1959] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cambridgeshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/54 (page 4)
    To the Chairman and Members of the Education Committee. Ladies and Gentlemen, The following report on the health of the school children in the rural area during 1959 is submitted in accordance with Section 92 of the Education Act of 1944. The population of the Administrative County is fairly equally divided as between rural and urban areas. The City of Cambridge is an excepted district under the Education Act, 1944. The type of service which can be provided in a scattered rural community with no centre of population over 5,000 persons must differ materially from that which can be developed in an urban area when minor ailment clinics and specialist clinics, for example, can be easily organised. In this report details of the service in the rural area are given and commented upon. Figures for the results of the service in the City are given as an appendix (both rural and urban area figures are consolidated for forwarding to the Ministry), but comment upon the details of the City service are usually given as a part of the Annual Report of the City Medical Officer of Health. Dr. R. French retired on March 6th, 1959, after 24 years service with the Council. I would like to take this opportunity of placing on record my thanks to him for having made so easy the handing over of his office. Having had the privilege of working for nearly eight years as his deputy it is my pleasure to record also the good wishes of his many friends on the Education Committee, in the Education Department and the schools, and of his own staff for a long and enjoyable retirement. The report this year is a combined operation as will be seen from the various sections where personal reports from the specialists working in those fields have been included. I am particularly grateful to the Chief Education Officer to be able to include a report on Physical Education, an activity to which 1 attach very particular importance. I greatly appreciate the help 1 have received from the many other contributors to this document. Though great strides have been made over the years to improve the condition of many of the primary schools it is a fact that lack of availability of finance is seriously hampering urgent sanitary improve- ments in a number of schools. The introduction of B.C.G. vaccination and the commencement of pure-tone audiometric testing of children’s hearing are two most satisfactory advances in the service. In the section on Medical Inspection and treatment mention is made of the department’s endeavours, on the one hand to bring the School Health Service more into line with present day needs and on the other, to strive not only for a greater integration with the schools, but also to be able to offer a service which can be of ready assistance to them. It is opportune here to record the gratitude of my colleagues and myself to all Heads of schools and their staffs for their help and co-operation during the year.