[Report 1954] / School Medical Officer of Health, Holland County Council (Lincolnshire).

  • Holland (England). County Council.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1954] / School Medical Officer of Health, Holland County Council (Lincolnshire). Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/36 (page 3)
    The 1953 Regulations give permission to a County Council to alter existing arrangements; the child, however, should still have three medical examinations. The variations could be in the intervals between existing inspections, including an arrangement whereby children are examined on entry to senior schools, thereby making the examination in the last year at a primary school unnecessary. An additional examination at the age of eight years may well gain favour in the future. This, of itself, would entail arrangements for some 1,600 children, a matter beyond the resources of the existing medical staff. In the early part of next year the health visitors and school nurses will undertake, as a new and additional routine, the testing of vision for the eight and twelve year old groups of children. Two student health visitors will join the school nursing staff after com- pletion of their full training. There are three vacancies at the present time in the health visiting staff and, with many and increasing demands on their time, new ideas can only be implemented slowly. However in the interests of the children, increasing endeavour will be made to ascertain visual defects. Teachers who express anxiety for ailing children do refer such cases and other references cover the fields of speech therapy, child guidance and intelligence testing. The basic feature of the work of School Medical Officers is preventive by discovering and assessing deviations from the normal. It seems wise to deal at length firstly with the problem of the handicapped child, in order that interested members of the com- munity may be kept informed of the need for special education. The second point to which I draw attention is the place of B.C.G. Vaccin- ation, and other matters in the prevention of tuberculosis, and finally matters in relation to Infantile Paralysis. Handicapped School Children. A statutory responsibility exists to ascertain children handicapped by reason of disability of mind or body who require special educa- tional treatment. The Regulations of 1953 specify ten categories of handicapped children. During the year a child suffering from an unstable type of diabetes was admitted to a special hostel for diabetics. This child had had several relapses necessitating admission to hos- pital but is now enjoying a more normal life under the hostel regime. Several diabetic children do of course attend school in the normal fashion and live at home. Places in special schools were also found for three severely physically handicapped children, one who had experienced a grave injury; a spastic child, a young girl; and a young spastic boy with an additional handicap. The first child, after losing the use of her legs, was admitted to the normal infants’ school, whilst waiting