View report page

119
LONDON BOROUGH OF LAMBETH
SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
Report of the Principal School Medical Officer for Year 1967.
The School Health Service which is the staturory responsibility of the Inner
London Education Authority is provided by the Health Department under an agreement
between the Lambeth Borough Council and the Authority and includes the
joint use of facilities and staff.
The general health of school children throughout the Borough remains good.
Medical Inspection returns show that the satisfactory downward trend in the number
of new cases requiring treatment for specific conditions has continued. The only
rising figure is that of children referred by the school medical officers to the special
investigation centres, 228 new cases in 1967 compared with 185 in 1966. This
increase is due to enuresis. Strong contributory causes in enuresis are poor
training and poor housing conditions. There is no evidence of an increase in poor
health.
Minor ailments become annually more minor and are now largely a matter of
simple nursing treatments. In consequence it proved possible to reduce the doctors'
sessions at minor ailment centres.
Arrangements continued with the London Boroughs of Southwark and Wandsworth
for the treatment of verminous children. It is hoped to provide bathing facilities in
the coming year at one of the school treatment centres in Lambeth. This should
help to reduce travelling inconveniences to the parents, reduce attendance difficulties
and provide a service operated directly by the Borough.
Unfortunately it had not proved possible to open the projected Inner London
Education Authority audiology centre in the north of the Borough by the end of the
year. The service provided by the Belgrave Hospital remained extremely overcrowded,
priority being given to children under five years of age. Immigration
and population movements within Great Britain are bringing an increased number
of older children from overseas and the provinces into the Borough and additional
services are urgently needed in this sphere.
SCHOOL MEDICAL INSPECTION
All pupils are medically examined as a routine four times during their school
life, but numerous other examinations for special purposes are carried out. In
addition, each child is inspected annually by a school nurse, and may also be
seen on other occasions by the nurse.
During the year medical officers undertook 16,377 routine examinations,
4,467 special examinations, and 5,570 re-inspections.