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106
MEDICAL TREATMENT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN
During the year the overall amount of treatment found necessary at medical
inspections has declined. This is a trend which has continued over the years
indicating an improvement in the health of Lambeth school children. Ringworm of
the scalp presented a problem to the Lambeth Department and in collaboration
with the family doctors and hospital dermatologists measures for control were
re-inforced. Both patients and positive contacts were excluded from school and
followed up by the school nursing staff.
Certain specialists clinics at which only school children are seen are run in
conjunction with the Regional Hospital Boards and the Boards of Governors of
Teaching Hospitals. Some clinics are provided in hospitals while others are held
in school treatment centres when the hospital authorities provide the specialist
staff and the local authority the premises and nursing staff. Sessions provided in
Teaching Hospitals include two vision sessions at King's College Hospital, two
vision and one audiology session at the Belgrave Hospital, and an investigation
session for heart diseases, enuresis, dietetics and minor behaviour difficulties.
All these sessions are attended by health service social workers, who arrange
appointments and act as liaison officers with the hospitals and the I.L.E.A.
school care committee and attendance officers. Vision clinics are also provided in
local authority premises and at one of these centres an orthoptic clinic is also
held.
In some instances the local authority provides directly certain treatment
facilities and in Lambeth these include special investigation clinics at which
children suffering from obesity, enuresis, minor behaviour disorder, and
psychosomatic illness are seen by School Medical Officers. Social workers from
the health department working with the school medical officers enable parents to
take advantage of the specialised help and facilities for treatment which these
clinics offer.
Minor ailment clinics at which a nurse is in attendance deal with day to day
minor accidents and illnesses and are provided at most school treatment centres.
Continuing the trend of previous years the number of attendances at minor ailment
clinics fell during the year. Most of the cases treated were for athlete's foot and
verrucae.
GROUP DISCUSSION IN SENIOR SCHOOLS
During the summer term, in conjunction with the teaching staff, a series of
group discussions was arranged for girls of school leaving age in a secondary
modern school. The aim of the project was to enable the girls to discuss freely
problems of personal relationships. Five sessions of 45 minutes each were
arranged and groups of 15 to 20 girls took part.