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6
PART I. MEDICAL INSPECTION IN SCHOOLS
The medical inspection of school children at fixed intervals during
their school lives has been an integral part of the development of the
School Health Service, and the following system of routine medical inspection
has been adopted in all maintained schools within the Borough
and in other schools which have requested it.
(i) Entrants
Children admitted for the first time to school and not already
examined as Entrants, i.e. normally between 5 years and 6
years.
(ii) 8 Year Old Group
Children in their second year in a Junior School, unless previously
examined in the Junior School.
(iii) Entrants to Secondary School
Children in their first year in a Secondary School.
(iv) Final Leavers
Children in their last year of attendance at school who have not
been medically examined in that year.
(v) Special Cases
Children of any age whom the Head Teacher and parents wish
the Medical Officer to see at his next visit.
It has been claimed that the routine school medical inspection is no
longer necessary since any defects which are discovered are already
known to the family doctor. There is remarkably little evidence for such
a statement, and in 1966 a survey was conducted in Croydon of all children
referred to a hospital specialist as a result of a routine school
medical inspection. The results were published in "The Lancet" in 1967
and showed that 67.2% of all such defects discovered by a school medical
officer were not known to the family doctor. In a further 26.1% of cases,
the family doctor, although aware of the defect, agreed with the decision
to seek a specialist opinion, and asked the Principal School Medical
Officer to make the necessary arrangements. These results were not unexpected
.since the School Health Service should be seeking defects before
the stage at which symptoms have appeared. In this way early treat
ment is possible before the defect can produce medical or educational
repercussions. Nevertheless, it has been help to have documentary
evidence that the Service is not duplicating the work of others, since
the survey was the first one of its kind in this country.
Another increasingly popular statement asserts that the School Health
Service is only concerned with medical defects which have an educational
significance. Since 1965 the Service has forwarded to Head Teachers a