London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hounslow 1971

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hounslow]

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The figures in the following table relate to the position in December 1971 and show the number of children who attend from Hounslow and neighbouring authorities.

DeafPartially Hearing
BoysGirlsBoysGirlsTotal
London Borough of Brent.691218
London Borough of Ealing1010111546
London Borough of Harrow245415
London Borough of Hillingdon9451129
London Borough of Hounslow7681334
London Borough of Richmond2_6513
Bucks. County Council21--3
Surrey County Council21317
Herts. County Council21--3
Total42363951168

Marjory Kinnon School
179 children whose intelligence is within the educationally
sub-normal range attend the school. A senior medical
officer visits the school twice weekly and during the year
the majority of children have been seen. A large number of
organic conditions which would lead to low intelligence
have been discovered. In other children who appeared to
be normal, there was frequently a history of low birth
weight, prematurity and perinatal difficulties.
A physiotherapist attends three times weekly and sees
children with locomotor difficulties — at the present time
there are twenty children with some neurological difficulty
varying from extreme clumsiness to spastic hemiplegia.
There are 17 epileptics, whose daily medication and care is
supervised by a full time nurse and she also copes with
minor ailments and medication for six asthmatics; she is
also a great support to children under stress. She ensures
that dental and hospital appointments are kept which often
means that she conveys the children and is liaison officer
between the hospital doctor and the school staff.
Over 30 children have visual defects and 10 have hearing
difficulties. An audiometrician visits the school and all
children have regular audiometry. A teacher of the deaf
liaises with school staff on children with hearing loss and a
speech therapist visits the school and examines every child
for speech defect or language delay. Treatment is given in
school and several children attend a language stimulation
class run jointly by the psychologist and the speech
therapist. The psychologist visits twice weekly and sees
children referred by the headmaster and school doctor.
The social worker is a vital member of the team and
provides the link between the family and school staff. She
visits the parents of all new entrants and gives continuous
support to a number of families as well as liaising with her
colleagues in other social work departments.
Concern has been expressed by the school staff at the
numbers of children who show behaviour difficulties in
school. The staff felt they needed advice on how to cope
with individual children within the classroom. The
psychiatrist from the Child Guidance Clinic has visited the
school once per term in an advisory capacity.
The erection of the new school should commence in
April 1972 and the medical team look forward to having
more space in which to do the assessments and therapy
when the building is completed.

The figures in the following table relate to the position in December 1971 and show the number of children who attend from Hounslow and neighbouring boroughs.

BoysGirlsTotal
London Borough of Brent1-1
London Borough of Ealing213
London Borough of Hounslow8070150
London Borough of Richmond2-2
North Surrey14923
Total9980179

Lindon-Bennett School
Eighty-seven children, whose intelligence is within the
severely sub-normal range, attend this school, twenty two
of whom need constant supervision or nursing care and are
in the special care unit. In April 1971 the administration
of the school was transferred from the Health to the
Education Authority, this means that there will be uniform
provision for mentally handicapped and normal children in
England and Wales.
A senior medical officer visited the school weekly and a
large number of children were seen and in addition a
principal medical officer saw children on home and clinic
visits.
Thirty-six of the children are Mongols and several of
these have additional handicaps such as heart, hearing and
visual defects. The children in the special care unit are
multiply handicapped and twelve cannot walk. The main
disabilities are cerebral palsy, epilepsy, spina bifida.
The children have very limited language comprehension and
only two can communicate by speech.
A full time nurse was appointed in 1971 and she is
already a vital member of the school staff. She is
responsible for medication for all children in the school and
deals with minor ailments and fits. A physiotherapist visits
the school three times weekly and her therapy programme
is carried out daily on some children by nurse and the
school staff. A speech therapist visits the school weekly
and treats individually and collectively children with speech
and language delay.

The figures in the following table show the numbers of children who attend the school from Hounslow and neighbouring boroughs.

BoysGirlsTotal
London Borough of Ealing112
London Borough of Hounslow523183
London Borough of Lambeth-11
North Surrey-11
Total533487

Oaklands School
This is a school for children in the severely sub-normal
range of ability. Ninety children attend the school and of
these 49 are from the London Borough of Ealing.
A principal medical officer visits the school to see these
children and a senior medical officer visits the school
49