[Report 1927] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council.

  • Cumberland (England). County Council.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1927] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/104 (page 7)
    In my last report, in commenting on even the lower fis:nres, T said “ the remedy for this state of affairs I believe to he in more efficient maternity and child welfare schemes, and education of parents, more es])ecially with reference to the diet of their children.” The vast majority of Entrants to our schools in 1927 would be born in 1922, and T find that in the year 1922 the infant mortality in the Countv was the highest recorded since 1919. high infant mortality means, as Sir George Newman has so often pointed out, as well as the loss of many infant lives the maiming of many of the surviving children, for conditions which kill some, maim many others, it also means a high death-rate, and a high sickness rate during the next four years of child life. Therefore, if we have a high infant mortality rate in any given year, as we had in 1922, we may expect to have, as indeed we have had, five years afterwards, a high percentage of defective children as Entrants to the schools. Hence the necessity for intimate co-ordination between a Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme and the School Medical Service. My view of an efficient Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme is one which not only pays attention to the child during its infancy, but also makes adequate pro^'ision for the periodical and thorough medical examination of all children, at least once every year, but better still, every six months ; not so much with the view of detecting disease, but of main¬ taining health, and treating the earliest manifestations of the slightest departure from health. If this were done efficiently, I have no doubt that the expenditure involved would be am]dy repaid by the better health of Entrants to the schools, as well as by a direct saving of money on the treatment of .school children who should never have been allowed to become “ defectives.” Review of the f.^cts niscEosEi) hy Medic.m. Inspection. (a) Uncleanliness. During the vear 307 cases of uncleanliness were reported by the Medical Staff, equivalent to 1.5 ])er cent, of the total number of children examined. It is gratifying to be able to record that the improvement noted in former years is not only maintained, but even slightly irauroved.