[Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, South Shields County Borough.

  • South Shields (Durham, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, South Shields County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/44 (page 3)
    o O To the Chairman and Members of the Education Committee. Madame Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for the year 1957. There was a slight reduction in total numbers of medical inspections carried out from 9,384 in 1956 to 9,273 in 1957. Parents attended the periodic inspections of their children in 73% of cases. The general condition of the children as found at the inspections was unsatisfactory in 1.1% of the total as compared with 2.7% in 1956. It was a satisfactory year for the dental service, there being a large increase in the number of inspections and a corresponding increase in the number of pupils treated. In spite of the larger figures, the appalling incidence of dental disease in children is such that only a small proportion can be effectively dealt with; various preventive measures coupled with dental health education appear to be the only answer to the problem, although with the present available resources it is difficult to see how these can be instituted effectively. It is gratifying to report a further fall in the number of unclean children. In the second half of the year the figure was 3.3%>, the lowest since the present system of cleanliness inspections was introduced in 1947 when the incidence was 22.9%. The programme of B.C.G. vaccination was again carried out and 861 thirteen year-old pupils were successfully vaccinated. The Authority’s speech therapist, Mrs. I. M. Salkeld retired in April, 1957 and her outstanding v/ork in this field over many years established a service of the highest standard. Due to the shortage of qualified speech therapists it was found impossible to fill this vacancy and consequently no speech therapy facilities have been available during the year.