[Report 1963] / School Health Service, Monmouthshire County Council.

  • Monmouthshire (Wales). County Council. School Health Service.
Date:
1963
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1963] / School Health Service, Monmouthshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/46 (page 9)
    The average number of weekly sessions held at the clinics is recorded in the preceding table. An increase, over the previous year, of almost 1,000 additional appointments were offered bringing the total for the year to 6,141. The total number of individual pupils offered appointments was 562, but of these 63 never attended the clinic and were eventually removed from the waiting list. Whilst it is pleasing to report that 89 of the pupils were discharged cured, it is also disappointing to note that in addition to the 63 cases that did not accept treatment 45 cases did not continue with their treatment. Every effort was made to interest and encourage school leavers in speech therapy training. Speech therapists attended Careers Conventions organised by the Youth Employment Bureau and the numbers of enquiries received was encouraging. Many of the pupils who expressed a desire to train attended speech therapy sessions at clinics throughout the county. Consultant Ophthalmic Clinic. The Ophthalmic Consultants, Mr. G. Wishart Hoare and Mr. Vaughan Jones, each continued to attend clinics held at Stanley Road, Newport. There were 72 sessions held during 1963. At each session the consultant was assisted by a medical officer of the school health department, two refraction unit nurses, and the orthoptist. The total number of cases seen was 1,070, and most of these were cases of squint. It is both interesting and significant to note that of the 292 new cases seen, the greater proportion, i.e. 167, of these cases were under 5 years of age and 125 were over 5 years of age. This state of affairs is by design and not by accident because it is now realised that the younger the child the better the result of treatment, especially in cases of squint. The health visitors have been particularly helpful by providing information on a child’s birth card of family history of squint and other ophthalmic conditions, so that babies that fall into this category can be offered an ophthalmic appointment at an early age, usually about 15 months of age. During the year 1963, Mr. Hoare has been particularly interested in a family resident in Monmouthshire, in which an ophthalmic disease, causing blindness, is suffered by males but is transmitted by females. There are at present four males in this family receiving full-time education as visually handicapped pupils, and it is anticipated that a further one or two will require this specialised treatment by the time they are 7 years of age. Refraction Clinics. These clinics were operated during the year 1963 by two school medical officers, in various centres in the county. During the year 3,926 children were examined and of these 1,151 were new cases: an appreciable proportion of the new cases were referred to clinics as a result of the school vision survey. The refraction unit now has two refraction nurses, one of whom attends clinics while the other examines children in school and vice versa. If younger siblings of a child attending a clinic were present with the parent then the parent was offered an opportunity of an appointment at a refraction clinic for the younger siblings. By this method we were examining quite a few children before they were of school age, i.e. 5 years of age.