[Report 1956] / School Medical Officer of Health, Kent County Council.

  • Kent (England). County Council. n 50045898.
Date:
1956
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1956] / School Medical Officer of Health, Kent County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/44 (page 12)
    Medical Treatment There were no major changes during the year. Table 16 on pages 39 and 40 gives details of the amount of treatment given during the year, but the figures relating to treatment provided otherwise than by the Local Education Authority are incomplete as statistical information is not received from all the hospitals treating children from the administrative area. (a) Minor Ailments.—The treatment of minor ailments is undertaken by the health visitors at the school clinics under the direction of a Medical Officer. During the year 11,899 defects received attention compared with 14,726 for the preceding year. (b) Cleanliness.—Owing to the decline in the incidence of personal uncleanliness among school pupils, it was decided that as from the beginning of 1956, the arrangements for regular cleanliness inspections in the Committee’s schools be relaxed as follows:— (i) Secondary Schools Cleanliness inspections shall be carried out only when they are requested by the Head Teachers. (ii) Primary Schools Regular cleanliness inspections shall be discontinued at any primary school where at three consecutive inspections no cases of uncleanliness are found; provided that further inspections shall be made if requested by the Head Teacher, or if it appears that special circumstances warrant inspections. The improvement noted during the past five years has been maintained. (c) Eye Diseases, Defective Vision and Squint. The arrangements made for this work to be carried out under the interim arrangements suggested in Ministry of Education Administrative Memorandum No. 303 continue to work satisfactorily. Spectacles are supplied through the Supplementary Ophthalmic Services under the National Health Service Act. The number of children examined by the Ophthalmologists was 20,387, the corresponding figure for the previous year being 18,735. Spectacles were prescribed for 8,500 children. The Assistant County Medical Officers reported that 324 pupils tested by the “Ishihara” colour vision plates were found to have a defect of colour vision. 286 of these pupils were examined by the Ophthalmologists by means of a “lantern test” to obtain more exact information as to the degree of colour blindness and 142 were found to have such a degree of defect as to render them unsuitable for future employment in occupations where a full range of colour vision is essential. The health visitors continued to test the vision of children aged seven years and 8,180 children were so examined. Of these, 423 were referred to Assistant County Medical Officers for further examination. (d) Nose or Throat Defects. During the year the Assistant County Medical Officers detected 1,256 children requiring treatment for nose or throat defects, and their recommendations were conveyed to the general practitioner concerned. Information has been received concerning 1,464 pupils who received operative treatment during the year. The Chief Medical Officer for the Ministry of Education has asked for the co-operation of all Principal School Medical Officers in order to ascertain the tonsillectomy rate in children. The School Health Service is in a unique position for such a survey to be made of pupils in maintained schools. It was decided that for 1956 and subsequent years, at periodic school medical examinations, a note should be made on the school medical record cards, and also on the returns, giving numbers of boys and girls who have undergone tonsillectomy at any time previously, thus making possible in each year an analysis of approximately one-third of the maintained school population of England and Wales. The Medical Research Council’s Committee for Social and Environmental Health hopes to investigate this question and the School Health Service should be closely allied with this enquiry. The analysis of the first enquiry was as follows:— Age-group Percentage of children examined who have had tonsillectomy Boys Girls Entrants 6.8 5.3 8-year-olds 21.2 19.0 11-year-olds 23.6 23.0 Leavers 27.7 27.5 (e) Orthopaedic and Crippling Defects.—The orthopaedic scheme is administered by the County Health Committee. In 1956 there were 23,316 attendances at these clinics compared with 25,219 attendances during 1955. Of the former figure, 92.2 per cent were children in attendance at maintained schools.