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279
SECTION VIII
SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICES
REPORT OF THE
PRINCIPAL SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER
The Inner London Education Authority is responsible for the
School Health Service but. by virtue of an agreement required by
Section 32 of the London Government Act, 1963, there is joint use
by the Authority and the Borough of professional staff, premises
and equipment. The Medical Officer of Health is the Principal
School Medical Officer of the Inner London Education Authority
for the area and is responsible to that Authority for the day to day
running of the Service.
Introduction
This account of the schoolchildren of Greenwich for 1967 is
presented along traditional lines. The report indicates in statistical
and tabular form a year of continued progress. Undoubtedly the
health and wellbeing of most of our schoolchildren continues to
improve. All the measurements and factors accepted as important
indices support this contention.
The school population was 38,579, of which 15,392 were examined
by school medical officers at routine inspections and 11,629 at
non-routine inspections. These examinations revealed that only
1% of pupils were in an unsatisfactory state of health. This figure,
although lower than last year, is still above the average for the
Inner London Boroughs. Last year it was thought that this was
due to higher standards being adopted by school medical officers
during their medical inspections at Greenwich schools. This view
was confirmed by the fact that again during the year under review
the number of pupils referred for treatment or kept under observation
was over the average for the Inner London Boroughs. The
high percentage of defects was most marked in heart, ear, nose and
throat, orthopaedic, psychological and abdominal abnormalities
and potential abnormalities. Defects of vision were below the
average for Inner London, while other defects were no more
frequent than the average for the area. With the exception of heart
conditions, all the above defects were more frequent than during