[Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Dorset County Council.

  • Dorset (England). County Council.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Dorset County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    46/88 (page 44)
    Register of Handicapped Pe rsons—Age Groups and Sex Children under age 16 Persons aged 16—64 Persons aged 65 and over Total Male 83 91 23 197 Female 60 98 35 193 Total 143 189 58 390 Epileptics Three epileptic children have been placed in special residential schools and there are no children on the waiting list; in addition, five children are being educated in ordinary schools. Five adults are maintained in epileptic colonies in various parts of the country, and twenty adults suffering from epilepsy are in Part III or joint-user accommodation. Spastics The provisions for education and training of spastics continue to improve. During the year the county council gave financial help in the form of a loan to the Victoria Home, Bournemouth, so that their proposed building programme could be expedited and more places for the severely handicapped educable spastic become available. The new home will be in Poole which will be within easy travelling distance for parents from any part of the county to visit. The newly formed Bournemouth and District Group of the National Spastics Society is also hoping to open a day centre which will take spastics, both educable and ineducable, living within reach. The county council’s arrangements for training adult spastics in a trade are still available but during 1957 no suitable ca ses were forthcoming. Five educable spastics are at present being maintained in residential schools and sixteen ascertained mentally defectives who are also suffering from spastic paralysis are either dealt with at occupation centres or through the home teaching scheme. Registration of Disabled Persons’ and Old Persons’ Homes (Section 37) Before any application for a certificate of registration is granted, the premises are inspected to determine their suitability and details of the staffing arrangements and furnishing are required. The following table shows the number of homes and the number of beds provided:— Registration Number of Homes Number of beds provided Homes first registered during the year 4 47 Homes on the register at the end of the year .. 15 246 Registrations cancelled 3 14 Registrations refused Removal to suitable premises of persons in need of care and attention (Section 47) One man was removed from his home under the provisions of Section 47 of the Act. After three months in residential accom- modation he was admitted to hospital, where he subsequently died. This old man, aged 84, had been living alone in a third floor attic room, was very infirm and had become quite unable to care for himself. He resolutely refused, however, to voluntarily enter an old persons’ home, but it was obvious that he was badly in need of care and attention that could not be given by way of domiciliary services. Temporary Protection of Property of Persons admitted to Hospitals, etc. (Section 48) The county council became responsible for the temporary protection of property in one new case, the total number of cases in which protection is given under this section being twelve. PUBLIC HEALTH LABORATORY SERVICE The service provided by the Medical Research Council is closely linked with the prevention of illness and the detection of infectious disease. The routine laboratory work of this service is mainly concerned with the bacteriological examinations of ‘medical’ specimens from general practitioners, infectious diseases hospitals and local authorities and all ‘sanitary’ specimens from local or food authorities. The laboratories of the service normally do not undertake work which is rightly the province of the hospital or clinical pathologist. The closest co-operation exists between the laboratory service and medical officers of health, especially with regard to epidemiological problems which arise from time to time. Two laboratories, staffed and administered by the Medical Research Council each with a full-time bacteriologist in charge, cover the work in Dorset. One laboratory is located at Dorchester and the other at Boscombe.