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62
This conclusion is to be regretted as it is probable that a scheme
could have been arranged whereby the co-operation of the Education
Committee, the Borough Councils, and voluntary agencies such as the
Health Societies might have been secured, so not only would medical
inspection be provided for, but steps would have been taken to secure
assistance to those children who were found suffering.
It is quite impracticable for the Medical Officer of the County
to supply the daily amount of information which the Borough Officers
require without a very large increase in his clerical staff, moreover the
officers of the County Council lose the opportunity of the information
which the local authorities can give them, for the Borough Councils are
now in possession of a considerable amount of information relating to the
families resident in their areas which would have been of value in dealing
with the problems of ill-health or defects which inspection may discover.
In view of the great expense it is probable some modified scheme
giving only a partial inspection will have to be adopted. Meanwhile,
much good work has been done unofficially in Westminster through the
co-operation of the Health Society with the School Care Committees,
and it is hoped that this will extend to the whole City as the work
becomes more organised, for the school work is inextricably mixed
with health work. The Care Committees refer all medical cases
suitable for home visiting to the Health Society, whose visitors see
that the School Medical Authorities' directions re special hospital
treatment, or home treatment, are carried out whenever possible.
" The delicate infant, the ailing school child and the phthisis case, are,
to a great extent concentrated in certain low-class and insanitary streets
in the district, often in a comparatively small number of degenerate
and poverty-stricken families already known to the Medical Officer of
Health, with whom co-operation in the work is essential. By a careful
system of indexing, overlapping can be prevented to a great extent, and
the accumulated knowledge of the different workers can be made use of.
" It is easy to realise the great value of the School Medical Officers of
the records kept from birth by the Health Societies of the children with
whom they have to deal. The necessity for this early watching and care of
children cannot be too strongly emphasised in order to stop the supply
of the Invalid Aid and the Care Committee type of child. Heretofore
in many instances, the child has been irretrievably damaged for life by
the time it has arrived in School. The. points which are to be specially
dealt with by School Doctors—eyes, ears, throats, and teeth, start from
infancy in the majority of instances."(Report of Health Society.)
A list of 196 cases is given in the Report in which special action had
to be taken, but, exclusive of Jewish cases in Soho, some 400 other
School children were dealt with.